Clean air for all: towards a global community of action. Air pollution is an invisible killer and one of the top risk factors for people’s health. It also impacts climate, which in turn sparks more fires and unleashes more dustThe good news is that cities and the United Nations are mobilizing and turning the tide. Progress is on its way.

Students hold 'Fridays for Future' rally in front of the Parliament in Lisbon, Portugal, 29 November 2019. (Keystone / EPA / Antonio Pedro Santos)

Youth activists sue 33 European countries over "fuelling" climate crisis. Deadly forest fires, sweltering heat, and insufficient action from governments have pushed them to take the climate emergency into their own hands.

U.S. pressures Kenya on plastics. A joint push by the oil and recycling industries is aiming at flooding Africa with plastics, both new and wasted, using Kenya as a hub. This is in spite of the country’s strict ban on plastic bags.

How to align finance with the net zero economy. A provocative series from UNEP Finance Initiative aims to inspire financial actors worldwide to challenge their current assumptions and develop “uncomfortable” ideas.

Protecting half the planet could help solve climate change and save species. A new study published in Science Advances argues that nations can help avert the biodiversity and climate crises by preserving the roughly 50 percent of land that remains relatively undeveloped.

Keystone / AP Photo / Rajesh Kumar Singh

People row their boats on the River Ganges in Prayagraj, India, Friday, Sept. 4, 2020. Heavy monsoon rains have raised the water level of the Ganges River.

07 September | International Day of Clean Air for blue skies. The first International Day of Clean Air for blue skies will be observed next Monday. The UN General Assembly adopted the resolution in 2019 that set a precedent for a new international day for clean air for the years to come.

9-10 September | Virtual Summit: Climate:Red. The International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) is hosting an all-day online conference on climate change. From expert panels, coffee chats, virtual tours, to even games, the summit will be available in all time zones, running for 30 consecutive hours, so no one will miss out

4-11 September | Geneva: #YouNeedtoKnow, an exhibition on the Sustainable Development Goals. The Fondation pour Genève and the UNOG Perception Change Project, along with the City of Geneva, has organized a panel exhibition promoting international Geneva as a center for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.