UN News Today 13 November 2026 |

COP31: Guterres makes final appeal for action on climate change 

At the UN climate summit in Türkiye on Friday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres made an impassioned and personal appeal for action to stop global warming and protect the world’s most vulnerable people.

“You cannot build peace on a burning planet” and “you cannot eradicate poverty when climate disasters keep throwing people back into it”, he told reporters in Antalya.

In what is his final appearance at a COP as UN chief before his term ends, Mr. Guterres insisted that “uncomfortable” truths about our reliance on oil and gas must be told:

“Fossil-fuel dependence leaves countries exposed to price shocks, geopolitical turmoil and instability. Changing suppliers does not solve that problem, reducing dependence does. That means massively expanding clean energy, grids, storage, efficiency and clean electrification, while ensuring that clean-energy growth actually drives down fossil-fuel production, use and emissions.”

An overshoot of 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures is now “inevitable”, the Secretary-General said, warning that it was likely to be as high as 2.5°C by the end of the century, unless nations cut greenhouse gas emissions.

He stressed that developing countries will need far greater support for climate adaptation work – and compensation for loss and damage caused by climate change. 

It’s a big ask, but the UN chief said he was hopeful because renewable energy is now mainstream. “Cleaner, safer and more secure” electricity is possible as long as nations have the courage and speed to grasp the opportunity, he said.

DR Congo Ebola outbreak: Unrest fuelled by armed groups holds back response

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to spread as armed groups launch deadly attacks on civilians and frontline health workers, UN responders said on Friday.

In an update, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, from the World Health Organization, WHO, insisted that real progress has been made in containing transmission of the virus within hotspots; in eastern DRC, Bunia, Mongbwalu, Rampara and Nizi, all in Ituri province.

Nonetheless, about 400 to 500 cases of infection are still being identified every week, particularly in remote and hard-to-reach areas, Dr Ihekweazu said:

“The biggest challenge the response faces right now is the rising insecurity. In six months, WHO has verified more than 80 attacks on healthcare. Violence restricts our access to people in need of help. It disrupts surveillance, it disrupts treatment, and forces people to move, disrupting their access to care.”

Communities are already facing outbreaks of diseases, malnutrition and displacement driven by decades of violent unrest, that’s been fuelled by dozens of armed groups that remain active in the resource-rich region. 

Earlier this week, WHO condemned attacks against frontline healthcare workers and Ebola awareness officers. One incident in Cantine-Aloya in North Kivu left 66 civilians dead including three health workers. Three health facilities were also looted.

Two weeks ago, a nurse was also killed and another health worker badly injured when they were attacked.

Window closing to stop ‘killer robots’, says human rights chief

As countries prepare to resume difficult discussions over so-called “killer robots” in Geneva next week, UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Friday urged them to agree to the development of a treaty regulating lethal autonomous weapon systems powered by AI.

“Human judgement and responsibility must remain at the centre of decisions involving the use of force,” Mr. Türk said, insisting that machines “cannot understand the value of human life”, nor make the complex judgements required by international law before they deploy. 

Here’s spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Shabia Mantoo:

“If not prohibited, anti-personnel autonomous weapons will inevitably proliferate and become more accessible to not only States, but a wider range of actors, including non-State armed groups and criminal organisations.”

Ms. Mantoo reiterated the High Commissioner’s point that objects cannot be held accountable “when things go wrong” issuing a clear call to governments to make “critical choices” about the future of warfare and human agency.

The upcoming discussions around autonomous weapons will take place during a meeting on the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. 

This is a key instrument of international humanitarian law that seeks to prohibit or restrict weapons that cause unnecessary or unjustifiable suffering to combatants, or which impact civilians indiscriminately.   

Daniel Johnson, UN News