The Lid is On

The post Second World war dream of global peace which brought countries from around the world together at the United Nations continues to resonate as the UN marks 80 years of its existence in New York City. It was never set in stone that the organization would find its permanent home in New York as it was competing with other locations in the United States to host the world body. The UN eventually...

2025 marks the 10th anniversary of one of the most significant resolutions on youth and peace ever adopted by the UN Security Council. Resolution 2250 led to widespread changes in the ways that the voices of young people are not just heard but also incorporated into peace plans and policies. In this episode of our flagship podcast, The Lid is On, Conor Lennon speaks to some of the young leaders wh...

Storytelling has the power to inspire action, and when celebrities and influencers use their platforms for climate advocacy, the impact can reach audiences across the globe. In September at UN Headquarters in New York, actor and UNDP Goodwill Ambassador Nikolaj Coster-Waldau shared his experiences of visiting UN Development Programme (UNDP) initiatives for his Bloomberg TV series, An Optimist’s Gu...

Space exploration and the use of space technology is becoming an increasingly critical part of the global economy, but how can the world ensure its benefits are felt, not just in the developed world but also in poorer and less technologically advanced developing countries? The UN Office for Outer Space Affairs ( UNOOSA ) was established for that exact reason and more particularly to accelerate sus...

Wind and solar energy are now the cheapest sources of energy, bringing cleaner air, stronger communities, and new economic opportunities. In September at UN Headquarters in New York, the  SDG Media Zone hosted a discussion highlighting the momentum of the clean energy transition, and how expanding access to wind and solar can improve public health, create jobs, and accelerate economic growth....

Too often, coordinated misinformation campaigns are amplified and monetized via digital advertising, hampering efforts to address the climate crisis. In the lead up to the November  COP30 UN Climate Conference in Belém Brazil, the  SDG Media Zone turned the spotlight on this pressing challenge, bringing together UN Senior Adviser on Information Integrity, Charlotte Scaddan; Jac...

At UN Headquarters in New York, Karla Quintana, head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria (IIMP), has warned that time is running out to find the hundreds of thousands who disappeared during the country’s long conflict. “Everyone in Syria knows someone who has gone missing,” Ms. Quintana told UN News. In conversation with Ezzat El-Ferri, she underscored that the search must b...

Now in its thirteenth year, the war in Syria shows no signs of letting up, and several foreign powers are active in the country, including Russia, the US, Turkey and Israel, which has stepped up its bombardments since the 7 October Hamas attacks.  The latest report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry details a marked escalation of violence, over the last six months, and outlines the d...

April 7 marks three decades since the beginning of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. An almost unimaginable slaughter, which saw an estimated 800,000 people killed in just 100 days, and shocked the world. Eric Eugene Murangwa was a footballer at the time, playing for Rayon Sports, one of the top teams in the country, based in the capital Kigali. As a Tutsi, he was in extreme danger wh...

The Haitian economy may be on its knees, but the gangs that control much of the capital Port-au-Prince seem to have little trouble obtaining guns, mainly from the USA. The country is awash with weapons: according to experts convened by the UN Secretary-General, these “deadly arsenals” mean that gangs have “firepower that exceeds that of the Haitian national police,” and the problem is getting wors...

In Kosovo, where tensions remain high between the ethnic Albanian and ethnic Serb communities, the United Nations is leading efforts to promote open communication and dialogue. The UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) was established in 1999, well before the declaration of independence in 2008, and today plays a central role in promoting peace and security, and respect for human rights, in a region where...

Small Island Developing States are particularly vulnerable to plastic pollution. As well as coping with a tsunami of waste washes up on their beaches every day, these countries – which are generally highly dependent on imports – generate a large amount of plastic waste of their own, and often struggle to manage it. Plastic pollution has a detrimental effect on the health and livelihoods of people...

Dominica may have found a solution to cover all of its electricity needs, and even sell electricity abroad, without burning fossil fuels: geothermal energy. This power source is 100 per cent clean, cheap and practically limitless. Conor Lennon from UN News meets Vince Henderson, Dominica’s Minister for Economic Development and Sustainable Energy, and Fred John, CEO of the Dominica Geothermal...

Caribbean island nations are vulnerable to a host of extreme weather events, from hurricanes to floods and droughts, that are becoming more dangerous and intense as a result of the climate emergency. UN News met with three of the most prominent young climate activists on Trinidad & Tobago, and learned of their frustration with current environmental legislation, and what they are doing to...

Like many island economies, Dominica experiences high youth unemployment, and recent events, in particular Hurricane Maria and the COVID-19 pandemic, have combined to make the search for work even harder. A UN-backed initiative designed to improve the employment options for young Dominicans, Work Online Dominica, has been successful in helping them to overcome the barriers they face on a small, re...

This episode of The Lid Is On focuses on cutting edge online technology, and the UN’s role in making sure that it benefits humanity, rather than causing us harm. Proponents of AI point to the immense benefits these tools could bring to society, but the clamour for robust regulation of AI is growing louder. Similarly, the car industry is forging ahead with plans to ramp up autonomous driving techno...

There was a wealth of stories to follow at high-level week of the UN General Assembly, from the conference on the Israel-Palestine two-State solution, to the ambitious pledges made at the Climate Summit, and the launch of two bodies aimed at finally creating truly inclusive international AI governance. But one theme that shone through was the importance of multilateralism and the work of the Unite...

In this episode of The Lid Is On, experts discuss the urgent need to restore the Ocean, which is facing a host of threats that could drive millions of marine life species into extinction and even endanger humanity. The protection of marine biodiversity will be under discussion at the UN Ocean Conference in June, where advocates will join politicians and members of the private sector to share solut...

The shipping industry moves 90% of world trade—and produces nearly 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In this episode of 'The Lid is On', Arsenio Dominguez, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), explains how a new UN agreement sets the sector on a path to net zero by 2050, introduces a global carbon pricing plan, and addresses concerns from the world’s most vulner...

A Thai woman has been talking about how she was tricked into handing over more than $300,000 to a criminal gang that entrapped her in an elaborate scam that began as a supposed case of identity fraud and which led her to believe that she and her family could be facing prison. A new report released by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime ( UNODC ) says that the transnational organized crime groups in A...

In this episode of The Lid Is On, Conor Lennon from UN News speaks to Luz Maria de la Mora, the Director of the International Trade Division at UNCTAD, about the uncertainty that unilateral tariffs are having on the global trade outlook, and why the consequence could be particularly serious for developing economies. Music by Joachim Harris, all rights reserved 

The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action , a key UN policy document adopted in 1995, has been credited for several major advances for women, from legislation outlawing domestic abuse to inspiring a new wave of young gender justice activists. But despite undeniable progress in gender relations over the past 30 years, inequalities between men and women persist and, in recent years, there has...

Just 35 hours later than advertised, the UN Climate Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan wrapped up, with an agreement to triple the amount of climate finance paid to developing nations to $300 billion per year, by 2035. The deal is a definite step forward, but the final sum is far less than the $1.3 trillion that climate experts say these countries need in order to adapt to the crisis. On this episode,...

COP29, this year’s UN Climate Conference, is being called the “climate finance COP”, because delegates are expected to sign off on a beefed-up funding target to replace the existing $100 billion per year commitment. The final figure the negotiators arrive at remains to be seen and it could be anywhere from a few hundred billion, to over a trillion dollars per year. On this episode of The Lid Is On...

The risk of the world’s major powers engaging in conflict  is at its highest level since the Cold War, and the possibility of nuclear war breaking out is greater today than it has been for several decades. On the final episode of Focus on the Future, Conor Lennon and Ben Malor from UN News concentrate on international peace and security, and how the Pact for the Future could help to reduce te...