U.N. Environment's Executive Director Inger Andersen described the nearly two-week summit as "a moment in which we need to agree on a plan to secure our life-support system, to make peace with nature" by preserving life's rich diversity.
Delegates from 196 nations began meeting at a major U.N. summit in Montréal where organizers cast the stakes as a last chance for saving the planet's biodiversity – the variety of life in all of its forms.
The goal of the summit is to get the world back on track toward meeting its obligations in the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity. More than 10,000 participants are expected; ministers will arrive for talks in the second week.
Climate scientists have warned for decades about bleaching of coral reefs, which are nurseries for commercial fisheries.
This year and next mark the countdown to a 2025 deadline for governments to strengthen their carbon-cutting plans.
The France-based court was created to uphold the European Convention on Human Rights, which took effect in 1953.
Negotiators and officials aim to wrap up so that May's 77th World Health Assembly can consider a proposed text.
The chair of the talks called for optimism despite divisions among plastic-producing nations and those urging restraints.
The group of organizations that reviewed the U.N. agency recommends several ways of strengthening its neutrality.
The humanitarian nightmare and attacks on civilians in Gaza dominated the U.N. Security Council's quarterly open debate.
Climate scientists have warned for decades about bleaching of coral reefs, which are nurseries for commercial fisheries.
