UAE minister of state Lana Nusseibeh speaks during a news conference at the port in city of Limassol, Cyprus, on 7 November, 2025. (Keystone/AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)

UN secretary general race takes chaotic turn as controversial candidates enter the fray. With two months to go before António Guterres steps down, none of the six remaining candidates has won over the Security Council’s permanent members. The late entrants fuel fears that the next secretary-general will simply do the bidding of the great powers.

Bringing you the latest from UN press briefings in Geneva.

🏭ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER RECORD. Levels of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere reached new historic highs in 2025, locking in more global warming for decades to come, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), warned yesterday.

In numbers. Its latest Greenhouse Gas Bulletin shows that for every one million molecules of air, 426.8 of them are now carbon dioxide – also known as parts per million – up 53 per cent from the 1750 pre-industrial baseline level. Methane and nitrous oxide concentrations also hit unprecedented levels.

What they said. "Every additional part per million matters because it traps additional heat. In effect, we are supercharging the ocean and the atmosphere,” WMO deputy secretary general Ko Barret told reporters in Geneva. The result is heatwaves, tropical cyclones, and rainstorms intensifying faster than historic baselines could have predicted.

Laying the groundwork. An exceptionally strong El Niño this year is expected to pave the way for another surge in CO2 levels, Barrett said, with droughts reducing absorption by the natural environment and fires turning plants into carbon sources as they burn.

The most powerful greenhouse gas of all. So far, it has attracted less attention than the major global warming gases because concentrations are still relatively small. But now, sulfur hexafluoride – a lesser-known colourless, synthetic gas – is stirring greater concern because of its use in the electrical industry. Levels have been rising over the last three decades as an unintended consequence of the green energy boom.

'Forever gas'. Widely used across the industry as an insulating material, SF6 has an atmospheric lifetime of up to 3,200 years – and is 24,300 times more effective at warming Earth’s atmosphere, pound for pound, than carbon dioxide.

"At the current level, it is still a very small concentration...What is concerning is the rate of increase. The concentration has tripled in just 30 years," said WMO senior scientific officer Oksana Tarasova.