The Lid is On

COP27 officially ended on Friday, but no agreement was reached when Conor and Laura recorded their last podcast in Sharm El-Sheikh. But, despite the gloomy predictions of no deal, the COP27 outcome document was finally agreed, on Sunday morning. Back home in New York after a 25-hour journey, Conor goes solo, to pull together a final COP episode of The Lid Is On. You can find all the details on the...

It’s officially the last day of COP27, and the UN podcast team have their bags packed, ready to return home. However, today did not see an outcome document agreed, and negotiating positions are reportedly still far apart on many issues. Laura and Conor report on the current state of play, and run through some of the main takeaways from this COP, before waving goodbye to Egypt. Music: Within the Ea...

UN Secretary-General António Guterres is back in Sharm El-Sheikh, in an attempt to nudge countries towards resolving their differences on contentious climate issues, and reaching an acceptable outcome to COP27. He boiled down the topics to three main areas: loss and damage, the emissions gap, and climate finance. Conor and Laura were on hand in Egypt to make sense of the negotiations, and the reac...

With just a couple of days to go at COP27, agreement on an agreed text – committing countries to move forward on measures to tackle the climate crisis – seems a long way off. On today’s episode of The Lid Is On, Laura and Conor pick over some of the main areas of contention, and report on the highlights from Biodiversity Day. Guests include the British singer Ellie Goulding, who is calling for imp...

The UN is leading calls for an end to fossil fuel use, but lobbying for gas has been a feature of this African COP, and there have been warnings that new gas and other fossil fuel projects are underway in many developing countries. On Energy Day, there were stark reminders of the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also signs that the world is moving in the right direction when it...

The second half of COP27 has begun and there’s uncertainty in the air regarding the progress of negotiations in the packed conference venue.  Monday saw a focus on two main themes: water and gender. UN officials were at COP to prepare the ground and raise awareness for a major conference on water, due to take place next year, whilst senior leaders pointed out the inadequate representation of...

Saturday is a working day at COP, allowing negotiators just one day to catch their breath, before the really hard work of hammering out some kind of outcome document begins on Monday. The theme of the day is agriculture and adaptation. We hear from the UN agencies that focus on agriculture (FAO and IFAD), and Conor and Laura explore options for sustainable diets. Beans and bugs are on the menu! Su...

COPs are a marathon, not a sprint. During the first week, country negotiators set the parameters for the serious, and often exhausting, horse-trading that begins next week, when ministers fly in, with the aim of hammering out a consensus agreement by the end of the conference. On today’s show, Laura and Conor speak to Selwin Hart, the UN Secretary-General’s special advisor on climate, and Rueanna...

On Thursday, day four of COP27, the 2022 “ 10 Insights in Climate Science Report " was released, and the leading scientists involved declared that the world cannot adapt its way out of the climate crisis: emissions must be cut as a matter of urgency. Conor and Laura discuss the report, and speak to climate activists and leading scientists on today’s show: one thing the two groups have in common is...

The world leaders who congregated in Sharm El Sheik for the first two days of COP27 have left and, whilst the climate negotiators get to work, the thematic days of the conference have begun. Wednesday was finance day, with a host of side events around the pavilions discussing the often thorny issues surrounding climate finance. It was also the day that former US Vice-President Al Gore launched a p...

It’s day two of COP27, and Laura and Conor are deciding on a good name for the podcast, and hunting for a good place to record the podcast! In the meantime, Laura followed the launch of the Net-Zero expert group’s report, which called out greenwashing, as well the other main events of the day. Conor spoke to the UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths, and Brad Smith – President of Microsoft and an...

COP27, the UN climate conference, has begun in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Conor Lennon and Laura Quinoňes are at the high stakes event, for daily episodes of The Lid Is On, explaining the main issues of the day, and talking to some of the experts, activists and leaders. Monday saw the Secretary-General give a forthright speech at the opening session, and it became clear that the...

We’re just a few days away from COP27, the UN Climate Conference, which is taking place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, from 07 November. For this episode of The Lid Is On, Conor Lennon and Laura Quiñones invited Selwin Hart – the Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Climate Action – into the studio to gauge the atmosphere before this high-stakes event. You will also hear from Ilana Seid, Palau’...

Nearly four decades on from the adoption of the UN Convention against Torture, there is evidence that it is still taking place in all regions of the world, even though it’s a recognized international crime. On this week’s episode of The lid Is On, Conor Lennon met Claude Heller and Suzanne Jabour – the chairpersons of the UN Committee against Torture, and the Sub-committee on the Prevention of Tor...

Most people are familiar with the phenomenon of refugees, those forced to flee their country of origin, because of a well-founded fear of persecution or, in some places, because of armed conflict or natural disaster. But there is another, equally vulnerable category of people, who don’t cross international boundaries, but find it necessary to relocate to a different region of their country. On tod...

It’s been thirty years since the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to create the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, on 17 October 1992. Great advances have been made in reducing global poverty since then, particularly in China and India, but the period has also seen significant increases in inequality, between and within countries. To get a better idea of what progress has be...

It’s World Space Week , a UN event celebrating the contributions of space science and technology to the betterment of the human condition. This year’s theme is space and sustainability, with a focus on how the technology can help us to better understand climate change. On this week’s episode of The Lid Is On, Conor Lennon from UN News is joined by Niklas Hedman, the head of the UN Office on Outer...

Counter-terrorism is one of the lesser-known subjects covered by the UN, but attempts to improve international cooperation to combat terrorism have grown in recent years, particularly since the 2001 plane attacks against the US. On today’s episode of The Lid Is On, Jennifer Bramlette from the UN Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED), and Adam Hadley from Tech Against Terrorism, a public-p...

On this week’s episode of The Lid Is On, we look at how the issue of the climate emergency has been raised during the opening session of the latest General Assembly session (UNGA77). This week, we've heard powerful speeches by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, star-studded events and gatherings at UN Headquarters, and hundreds of events taking place in New York, capitalizing on the global att...

This week we bring you a bonus episode of The Lid Is On: an exclusive interview with UN Secretary-General António Guterres. On the eve of High-Level Week, when leaders from around the world gather at UN Headquarters in New York, Nargiz Shekinskaya from UN News sat down with Mr. Guterres to discuss some of the key international issues on his agenda, including the climate crisis, the need to urgentl...

World leaders will soon be flying into New York, for High-Level Week at the UN General Assembly. On Friday, the Peace Bell at UN Headquarters was rung by the UN Secretary-General and President of the General Assembly, and hundreds of young students filled the Economic and Social Council chamber, to reflect on this year’s theme for International Day of Peace , End Racism, Build Peace. Conor Lennon...

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on education are severe and will only be fully understood in the years to come, says Costa Rica’s former education minister, Leonardo Garnier . Mr. Garnier is the Special Advisor to the Transforming Education Summit, which takes place during the opening days of the 77th session of the General Assembly. On this week’s episode of The Lid Is On, Conor Lennon sits...

Next Wednesday the UN marks the third International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies . However, the skies are far from clear of air pollution. Only a month ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that practically all the air we breathe is polluted, and that it’s killing around seven million people every year. Ahead of the International Day, Conor Lennon from UN News spoke to Martina Otto an...

On this week’s Lid Is On, Conor Lennon speaks to two experts on racism against people of African Descent, on the insidious nature of everyday racism, the importance of reparations, and why an acceptance that the wealth of developed countries is built on the back of oppressed, Black people, is liberating for people of all races. Dominique Day is a human rights lawyer, and a member of the UN Working...

Uganda’s status as a refuge has seen large numbers escaping conflict in neighbouring and nearby countries, in particular South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and living in relative safety. Whilst many are living in refugee camps administered by the UN in the north of the country, such as the Bidi Bidi settlement, others have made their way to the capital, Kampala, and some are mak...