The gathering of United Nations advisers, climate experts, and international students was billed as a snapshot of the "State of the Planet." And it did not paint a rosy picture.
Jan Eliasson, a veteran diplomat who serves as the deputy secretary general of the U.N., ran through a litany of the sustainable development and environmental goals that have eluded policy makers in recent years, and he and other speakers emphasized the urgency of tackling global warming.