Women with children carrying grass to be used for thatching in Zimbabwe (Credit: Keystone/EPA/Aaron Ufumeli)

More women in leadership needed to reverse Covid-19 impact on the gender poverty gap, says UN. The coronavirus crisis will push 47 million more women and girls into extreme poverty by 2021, further widening the gap between women and men, according to a UN report released today. The economic fallout from the pandemic is driving more people into poverty worldwide. However, women are being worst affected because they are more likely to be employed in hard-hit sectors, such as retail and hospitality.

How much is Geneva costing to the UN? The tricky task of understanding the UN budget(s). The Palais des Nations with blocked escalators, conferences cut short and reduced staff pay: budgetary tensions within the UN system are an established fact. As of 28 August 2020, 79 member states haven’t paid their yearly contributions to the UN regular budget.

In search of a boss, the WTO is navigating the crisis in a world where cooperation has disappeared. To celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary, the World Trade Organization (WTO) was no doubt hoping for a more favorable backdrop. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a collapse in international trade while multilateral cooperation, an essential condition for the exercise of its mandate, has lost favor with political leaders around the world, in particular with the United States under Donald Trump.

Citi announces $250 billion commitment to finance climate solutions This commitment builds on Citi’s earlier, and highly successful, goal of $100 billion, which was announced in 2015 and completed in 2019 — four-plus years ahead of schedule. Val Smith, Citi chief sustainability officer explains how this commitment can help accelerate the inevitable transition to a clean energy economy - and how the bank balances their commitments to the fossil-fuel industry.

(KEYSTONE / Laurent Gillieron)

Sam Kendricks of USA competed on Wednesday during the men's pole vault city event of the Athletissima IAAF Diamond League international athletics meeting, in Lausanne, Switzerland. Due to the pandemic, this year's Athletissima meeting organized only the so-called 'City Event', an edition of Athletissima reserved exclusively for pole vaulters in the city center and in front of 1000 spectators.

9-10 September | Online: The Future of ESG Data 2020. This virtual conference organized by Environmental Finance is a new initiative that will bring together experts and networks in the field of corporate sustainability. Rubbing shoulders with this virtual crowd doesn’t come for free, with organizers charging £1194 (CHF 1441) - VAT inclusive per entry.

10-11 September | St. Gallen: Forum for Management of Renewable Energies. The 11th REM Forum entitled, “System Change, Not Climate Change – Doing Business in a 1.5°C World” will bring in speakers from academia and the industry to discuss the shifts in the climate debate and its effects on the management of renewable energies.

10 September | Online: Sovereign Debt in Financial History. The Graduate Institute's Centre for Finance and Development is organizing Day 4 of D-DebtCon 2020 that will focus on the different forms of sovereign debt in history, dating as far back as 1682.