Attending COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan from 11-22 November 2024, QUNO’s Human Impacts of Climate Change (HICC) program was busy engaging with proceedings and acting in our capacity as official credentialed observers of the multilateral negotiations:

The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) and Eunomia have published a new report detailing a second phase of research and modelling to understand the extent of subsidies for primary polymer production and the potential impact of removing these. We undertook the study with support from Dalberg Catalyst through grant funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.

In a recent meeting with diplomats, May Sabe Phyu of the Women's Advocacy Coalition – Myanmar shared that, “The only hope for any of us to live on is to see a new federal democratic Myanmar.” She made this point during a lunch gathering at Quaker House in New York on 23 October. The meeting brought New York-based diplomats together to meet with four representatives of the Women's Advocacy Coalition to learn more about the gendered aspects of the crisis in Myanmar.  
 

QUNO’s Human Impacts of Climate Change programme published a new briefing paper titled "Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR): What is Sustainable and Just?". Written by Dr. Duncan McLaren and Dr. Olaf Corry, two academic experts on environmental law, international politics and geoengineering, this briefing paper is a key resource for understanding the risks of reliance on CDR.  

On 1 October, representatives of QUNO New York met with colleagues from the NGO Working Group for Peace on the Korean Peninsula to hear from Reverend Dr. Kim Hiheon. Reverend Kim is a pastor and peacebuilder from the Republic of Korea (South Korea), who engages in Christian activism on social justice, demilitarization, and unification of the two Koreas. The conversation took place in the context of a deteriorating relationship between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and South Korea, as North Korea has stated its intention to abandon reunification as their goal.  

For anyone who has worked with the Quaker UN Office (QUNO) in New York, Stephen Collett's name looms large as a former Director who provided steadfast leadership during a time of significant change at the UN. We are saddened to learn of his unexpected passing on 29 July 2024.  

I first stepped foot in the UNGA chamber at age eighteen on a tour while visiting New York City with my family. Taking in the vast expanse of delegate seats, the dramatic curve of the ceiling, and the UN seal shining in the distance, I dreamed wildly of one day having a place in that hall. Over the past few weeks, participating in civil society Action Days for Summit of the Future and experiencing the energy around the high-level week of the General Assembly, I thought often of teenage me.

As part of the 2024 World Plenary Meeting (WPM), QUNO Geneva Interim Deputy Director and Representative for the Human Impacts of Climate Change Lindsey Fielder Cook, contributed personal reflection and testimony by video recording on the theme of ‘care for creation’. Taking place in South Africa from 5-12 August 2024, the WPM was organized by the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) and hosted by the Southern Africa Yearly Meeting.

As part of QUNO’s Sustainable and Just Economic Systems programme and the Uncommon Collaborations initiative, we are pleased to announce the release of a new brief titled Trade Issues and the International Legally Binding Instrument on Plastic Pollution: A Legal Analysis. Authored by Dr. Alexandra Harrington, the report provides a critical examination of the intersection between international trade law and the proposed global treaty to end plastic pollution (ILBI), currently under negotiation.