Plug in “climate change” in the Yearbook of the United Nations online search tool. The results will show that the earliest mention of the term appears in coverage of the , which was conceived in to better understand climate, the impact of climatic change, and its relationship to human activities. Further searches reveal milestones in the history of the UN and climate change, including the first session of the in 1988, the Earth Summit and signing of the in 1992 and the annual .
In October 2021, seventeen print, broadcast and digital media journalists of the Reham Al-Farra Journalism Fellowship (RAF) from Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia and the Pacific took part in the annual “Using the Yearbook online” training workshop conducted by editors of the Yearbook, the authoritative reference on the Organization’s activities and concerns. Conducted virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the session had fellows logging in from their home countries across twelve time zones. The workshop opened with an overview of the structure of the Yearbook and its production process. The Yearbook staff illuminated the measures taken to ensure the flagship publication’s high information quality and accuracy, such as content organization, substantive writing and editing, copyediting, fact-checking and proofreading—key universal standards for combatting misinformation and disinformation in the digital age. Based primarily on official UN documentation, the factual and contextually rich narration in the Yearbook provides users with a verified and trusted resource on the United Nations dating from its inception. Through live demonstrations of the website’s search tool, the RAF Fellows explored the most efficient way to access the Yearbook’s invaluable trove of background and supplementary information. The searches included two pre-planned topics and those suggested by the journalists during the session on, among others, UN disaster response, mental issues, the climate crisis, nuclear disarmament, the India-Pakistan question and the African diaspora. In their feedback, the Fellows emphatically conveyed that the session had helped them gain a better understanding of where to search for UN information and resources.
Over the past decade, Yearbook workshops have trained scores of RAF journalists, UN staff and accredited civil society representatives as well as UN-accredited diplomats. The sessions have remained popular despite COVID-19 constraints that migrated the training from a physical classroom to a virtual setting. In the past two years alone, delegates representing Andorra, the Bahamas, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, El Salvador, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lesotho, Monaco, Serbia, Spain, Ukraine and the Sudan have participated in Yearbook website workshops conducted in collaboration with the Dag Hammarskj?ld Library. Those participants have regularly approached the sessions to pursue their interests and needs in a wide range of areas: the context surrounding the resolutions adopted by the United Nations; what, why and how questions related to Security Council actions; the history and evolution of human rights; women’s rights; history of sustainability; disarmament; international law; health and social issues; and disaster-risk reduction, to name a few. In each instance, they learned how to navigate through the 68-volume Yearbook online collection to locate the information. In their feedback, delegates have lauded the workshop as being focused and extremely useful, especially, for example, on political and security topics. Another delegate said she appreciated being able to find information about the membership to UN bodies in the early years of the Organization. Participants also appreciated how the Yearbook presents the UN’s role in calling timely attention to global urgencies and in shaping consensus on global policy.
For journalists as well as delegates, there seem to be at least two major benefits from using the Yearbook online. First, the unique presentation of facts and narration on UN priorities in the Yearbook provides users with a broader understanding of the Organization and clarifies current deliberations and details otherwise tucked away and practically hidden in the vast ocean of official documents. Second, the editorial soundness of the Yearbook—its higher information quality sourced in primary material, clearly and contextually narrated, fact-checked and supplementarily documented—means that it need not be checked against any other reference standard for journalistic or diplomatic use. As the Yearbook meets or exceeds UN standards of accuracy, balance and objectivity, it represents a truly authoritative resource for understanding the work of the United Nations.
Did you know?
An informal name for the annual Conference of the parties to the Convention on climate change is COP. For more information on this year’s meeting (31 October-12 November 2021) visit COP26.
SEARCH TIP 1: If you search for an informal name on the Yearbook website, such as “G77” for “Group of 77”, the outcome may be “0” results. When possible, use the formal name of a Group, Convention or UN entity.
SEARCH TIP 2: Terminology evolves. “Climate change” is first cited in the 1979 Yearbook, yet “climatic change” and “climatic changes” appear, respectively, in the 1974 and 1962 editions. When using the search tool, choose “Web-search style” instead of “Exact phrase” to widen the number of relevant results.
For questions on using the Yearbook online search tool, we invite you to contact us.