It’s easy to get lost in the argument over who needs to do the most to stop global warming, but the fact is, everyone needs to do their bit and “we’re all responsible.”

That’s one of the guiding principles for Satya Tripathi of India, who in this latest Lid Is On podcast from UN News, from the crucial COP24 climate change conference in Poland, says we need to focus on bettering our immediate environment and taking collective responsibility for the planet.

In his role as Assistant Secretary-General for the UN environment agency, UNEP, in New York, he’s been taking part in talks over the future of climate action in Poland, and explained to our Yasmina Guerda, what India has been doing to fight global warming, region by region.

Music Credit: China Town, by Audiobinger.

What’s it really like to be a victim of child trafficking?  The founders of non-profit, Street Art for Mankind, that fights child trafficking using art from around the globe, are trying to provide the answer.

The exhibit, called “UN-ji,” made its way to UN headquarters in New York last month, bringing art, sounds, and smells, to help visitors gain insight into the issue and contribute to ending trafficking for some 150 million victims worldwide.

For this latest edition of our UN News Lid is On podcast, Natalie Hutchison went along to find out more.

Not many school commutes involve having to go through checkpoints and body searches, but that’s the daily reality for some 163 Palestinian youngsters in Hebron, a bustling city in the southern part of the West Bank. 

During a recent visit to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Reem Abaza, of UN News, went inside the closed zone for this edition of our Lid Is On podcast, to speak with students and teachers from Qurtuba School.

In this week’s episode of our flagship podcast, The Lid Is On, Conor Lennon from UN News looks at the United Nations' efforts to make big business part of the solution for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 - not much more than 11 years away.

His guest is Dan Thomas, Head of Communications from UN Global Compact, the world’s biggest corporate sustainability initiative, with a mission to bring companies in line with universal principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.

They discuss how the UN managed the convince big business to sign up to the Compact, and why more and more companies are realising that Sustainable Development and profit can, and do, go together.

We'll also hear from Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, Teressa Szelest, a President at the chemical company BASF, and Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever.

This week’s episode of the Lid Is On comes to you on World Cities Day, which it's hoped will foster cooperation among countries in meeting the challenges of urbanization, and contribute to sustainable development of cities and big towns everywhere.

For many years, the world has seen an inexorable movement from rural areas to urban centres, as people search for jobs, access to services and generally improved life prospects. However, many large cities have become hotspots of inequality and exclusion, a problem that has grown since the 1980s.

The UN has been trying to combat this trend, launching global campaigns and initiatives to bring about fairer cities.

Conor Lennon took a trip out the door of UN Hedquarters in New York,  to see how community gardens have become one effective and low-cost way to build stronger neighbourhoods.

Disarmament is too important to be left to the experts.

That’s the view of Renata Dwan, Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), who says young people and civil society have a vital role to play in arms control, at this turbulent time in world history.

For our latest Lid Is On podcast, from UN News, Paulina Greer talks to her about ridding the world of nuclear and other weapons, and she explains why that’s not just some utopian dream these days – it’s a practical necessity.

Music credit: Shell Shock, by Audiobinger.

How can the United Nations, created in the aftermath of the Second World War, stay relevant to today’s young people?

At this year’s High-Level Week of the General Assembly, the UN Secretary-General launched the Youth2030 Strategy, an ambitious plan to get the UN to step up its support for the empowerment of young people, and harness their talents for the global good.

For this edition of our UN News flagship podcast, the Lid Is On, Conor Lennon talked to some of the exceptional young talents invited to UN headquarters during the week, and was joined in the studio by activist and advocate for migrants and refugees, Tolu Olubunmi, who is advising the UN on the way it communicates with young people.

Many of the world’s 821 million hungry people could be fed if less food was thrown away, according to the United Nations.

The UN’s human settlements agency, UN Habitat, estimates that globally some 1.3 billion tons of food is lost or wasted each year.

A reduction in that shocking figure, presents what the agency has called “an enormous opportunity for tackling food insecurity.”

For this edition of our flagship podcast, The Lid Is On, marking World Food Day, Daniel Dickinson reports from New York on how small actions, could make a big difference when it comes to tackling global hunger.

This is the first in a series of special episodes of The Lid Is On, recorded during High-Level week of the General Assembly, and featuring some of the many experts, UN officials and politicians who filled UN Headquarters during late September 2018.

Conor Lennon kicks off with a look at digital technology, and how it is being used to tackle some of the world's biggest problems, from climate change to disaster relief.

This episode includes interviews with Claire Melamed, CEO of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD); Bogolo Joy Kenewendo, Botswana's Minister for Investment, Trade and Industry; Rebecca Morgan, director of Google Earth; and Amanda Pitt and Stefania Tressari from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).