(Part 2) A Planet Fit for the Future: Restoring Trust through Climate Action - Special Event, General Assembly, 81st session

I call the order of the informal meeting of the plenary. I welcome all of you to the panel discussion of the informal meeting of the plenary on a planet fit for the future, restoring trust through climate action under the theme reimagining early warning in an era of melting ice and rising seas. Excellencies, Ambassador Thapa, distinguished delegates, and guests, it is my privilege and honor to moderate this panel. Less than a month ago, on the 24th of September, this assembly adopted its first declaration on sea level rise. I want to talk about where the water comes from and about the people it reaches. The Greenland ice sheet holds enough water to raise global seas by about seven meters. At the opposite end of the planet, Antarctica holds enough water to raise them by nearly 60 meters. Together, the two ice sheets lose the equivalent of about 170 swimming pools every second. By the time I finish these remarks, the giant ice sheets will have poured the equivalent of 40,000 swimming pools into the ocean in just four minutes. That corresponds to about 1.1 millimeter per year to the global ocean. One millimeter might not seem a lot, but every millimeter of sea level rise exposes about 600,000 people to coastal flooding. Greenland and Antarctica are not the only sources. The world's mountain glaciers have a similar amount of water to the ocean, with the last seven years being six of the worst years ever recorded for glaciers. Mountain regions such as the Himalaya have no coastline, and we might think they are removed from the sea level conversation. But a mountain village and the atoll are two ends of the single river. A river that runs through our changing climate and ties every country to the fate of the world's ice. The river runs straight through Nepal, which knows better than anyone what happens when ice lets go all at once. In August, a flood took too many lives. Ambassador, please carry our condolences home. In the declaration, members commit to strengthening anticipatory action and multi-hazard early warning systems. Yet this summer in the Himalaya, the satellite image showing a missing piece of glacier came only after the water had passed. And the flood had crossed an international border. Our data mean nothing if they stop at a checkpoint. Warnings must cross borders faster than the water does. And the forecast that reaches an office but not a person is not a warning. It is a record. Science will not hand you certainty. What it can hand you is time. Next month, many of you will carry this declaration from New York to Antalya. COP31 is where its words must find their names, their means, finance for adaptation and loss and damage, early warning systems shared across borders. and emission cuts deep enough to decide how much ice the next century inherits. The work ahead is an enormous effort, and much of it rests on people in this room. I wish you courage, patience, and the very best of luck, and every year after it. It is now my honor to introduce the panelists. Thank you so much. First, there's going to be a video played.

Before the world saw the flood, Ruswa was told to move. People had seen floods before. The warning sounded familiar. The danger was not. Something had broken loose high above. And in minutes, the landscape below was rewritten. A collapse so powerful, the USGS registered as a magnitude 5.2 seismic event, and later attributed to the icefall. For some, the flood took a life. For others, their livelihood. For thousands, it took the place they called home. And some still do not know who is coming back. The water receded, the sludge remained, blurring the line between what survived and what was gone. Raswa is not an isolated tragedy. Across Nepal, the signals are repeating. Different valleys, different years, different triggers, the same question: How much more can a country absorb? Nepal contributes little to the emissions driving global warming, yet the climate signal is already written across its mountains, its rivers, its communities. Mountains are not just scenery. They are alive. They freeze. They fracture. They shift. And when they move, the consequences travel.

Thank you. The first panelist is His Excellency Lok Bahadur Thapa, Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations. And the question for you, His Excellency, is Recent events in the Himalayas underline how glacier melt, unstable mountain environments, and extreme weather can trigger cascading hazards with little warning. What practical steps are needed to link scientific observation, forecasting, technology, and local knowledge so the rapidly evolving risks are detected early and translated into trusted, timely, and actionable warnings for communities, particularly in vulnerable developing countries? Thank you.

Thank you, moderators. I thank firstly your condolence message. We know the glaciers are melting, sea level is rising. You are right, the moderator, what unfolds in the high mountains does not remain confined there, and its impacts travel far beyond, saving life, livelihoods, and landscapes downstream and across the continent. We cannot and should not wait for decisive actions to address these shared challenges. On this, I'm deeply grateful to the President of the General Assembly for convening this timely dialogue on From Glaciers to the Sea ahead of the COP31. Colleagues, as you know that You just saw the video from Nepal. On 26th of August, a colossal rock and ice collapse triggered catastrophic disasters in Nepal, which we call Himalayan tsunami. It swept through settlements, destroyed the roads, and it destroyed the hydropower installations and disrupted essential lifelines. As of today, 1,451 people have lost their lives, and nearly 6,000 people remain unaccounted for. Preliminary estimates place recovery and reconstruction needs at over USD 5 billion. That is close to 15% of Nepal's GDP. In July 2025, rapidly draining supraglacial lake trigger a destructive flood in the same river. Just last week, we witnessed another disaster in the Burigundaki River, quite near to that place what happened in August 2026. This was equally harrowing. This was devastating and quite destructive. These repeated and frequent incidents have demonstrated how cascading hazards involving glaciers, rock falls, landslides, water, and sediments are becoming frequent and increasingly destructive in our mountains, threatening lives, threatening livelihoods, and hard-won development gains we made over the years. Clearly, Nepal is bearing the brunt of a climate crisis we did not contribute to create. These disasters underscore the need to better understand how climate change, cryospheric change, and geological instability are reshaping the risk across the Hindu Kush Himalaya. They are happening in regions that is warming faster than the global average. and where climate change is amplifying extreme weather events and natural hazards. Scientists warn that under current emissions pathways, the Himalayas glaciers could lose up to 80% of their volume by the end of the century, increasing risk from floods, landslides, and glacier hazards across the regions. it will affect the 1.8 billion people. These frequent catastrophic disasters remind us that the understanding of risk must evolve. Our early warning system must keep pace with the rapidly changing climate. Traditional flood forecasting is no longer adequate. The specter of unprecedented climate risk remains high in the Himalayas, demanding the vigilance, innovations, and solidarity. And they also highlight the need for enhanced continuous monitoring of our mountain environment so that emerging signs of glaciers collapse or destabilizations can be identified early and acted upon. Against this background, moderator, let me come to your point about the practical steps we must employ to address the problems we are facing. First, we need to expand integrated real-time monitoring systems, combining glacial snow, permafrost hydrology rainfall and landslide sensors with satellite data, drones and community observations to capture rapidly evolving high mountains hazards. Satellite monitoring could help identify other high-risk Himalayan slopes for closer observations. Second, we must develop multi-hazards forecasting models. Existing warning systems, basically designed around rainfall and river monitoring, are not designed to detect sudden mountain collapse hazards. For this, we must move beyond single hazard flood forecasting to multi-hazard forecasting to detect cascading hazards before they become disasters. Third, we must integrate scientific forecasting with local knowledge and community-based observations. Communities often recognize early signs of changing weather patterns, melting glaciers, and unusual river flows. That's exactly what happened last week when the flood happened in Burikan River. Combining their observations with scientific evidence can strengthen risk detections and anticipatory actions. Fourth, we must deploy proper communication technologies for warning dissemination, including through multilingual alerts to ensure warnings reach remote and vulnerable populations quickly and reliably. Early warning must connect science with timely, understandable, actionable, and credible information. that reaches the people, particularly remote mountain communities. Fifth, we must build institutional capacity for rapid interpretation and actions through training, local authorities, disaster management agencies, and community groups. Sixth, we must ensure sustained financing for monitoring and early warning systems. Climate vulnerable countries need accessible, predictable and grant-based financing, advanced technologies and sustained capacity building support. To this end, COP31 should strengthen international cooperation and deliver accessible, predictable and grant-based finance for early warning and anticipatory actions, particularly for vulnerable mountain, downstream and coastal communities. Seventh, we must integrate scientific evidence into development planning. We must embed CRISPR and mountain hazard information into infrastructure design, land use planning, and water resource management to reduce exposure and vulnerabilities. So on that, colleagues, our central message will be very simple and very clear. It's climate risk. accelerate across the Himalayas. The need for collective actions has never been greater. From mountains to the sea, early warning requires stronger regional and transboundary cooperation. Nepal's Sagarmatha to the sea vision calls for connecting mountain, river basins, and coastal risk monitoring through scientific operations, data sharing, and coordinated early warning systems. We must bring science, technology, institutions, and communities together to build people-centered into in all UN systems that protect every community, especially the most vulnerable one. I thank you.

I thank His Excellency Ambassador Thapa. And next, I'll give the floor to Ms. Jihye Kim, Program Manager of the Programming and Country Engagement of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage. The question is, climate vulnerable countries face a persistent gap between the need for finance, technology, and institutional capacity for addressing the impacts of climate change. How can the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, alongside the international community, provide loss and damage related support in a way that complements existing streams of finance to help countries reduce risks, build resilience, and respond effectively when climate impacts exceed adaptation capacities. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, Ambassador. We express our deepest appreciation for convening this dialogue and for the member states and our partners in calling for the establishment and creation of the fund for responding to loss and damage. We also deeply appreciate the calls to fully mobilize and fund the fund and for understanding that we are in our early stages of operations. However, our mandate and our goals are quite clear. Above all, let me express our deepest solidarity with the people and government of Nepal. The images that we have seen today and what we have seen in many other countries remind us that behind every disaster is a human face. Loss and damage is not an abstract concept. It is the home a grandfather built for three generations who grew up there that is swept away by floods. It is a family grieving someone lost in a landslide. It is the disappearance of a sacred place, a livelihood, or a way of life. It is a community asking whether they can remain in the land that they always called home. Some losses can be measured in dollars, and others just cannot. This is why the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage exists. The fund was created after decades of advocacy by countries and communities insisting that finance must also support those that already are living with loss and damage. And this brings us to today's discussion. Early warning systems save lives. They give people precious time to act. But even the best warning cannot prevent every loss. A warning cannot, on its own, rebuild a home. restore a livelihood, or bring back a loved one. So the question is not only whether a warning reaches a community, it is whether that warning leads to action and whether support still remains when losses still occur. Early warning and preparedness must connect with efforts for adaptation, but also connect with support for unavoidable and irreplaceable loss and damage. Countries themselves are showing us what this means in practice. Our first call for funding requests closed in June with 176 funding requests submitted by 119 countries, totaling $2.8 billion. This is 119 countries with 119 different stories. Stories of damaged water systems, threatened coastlines, destroyed livelihoods, lost ecosystems, and communities seeking not just to rebuild, but to recover with dignity. Among these, 77 funding requests include early warning or emergency preparedness activities. So this tells us something important. Countries do not experience climate risks in institutional silos, and neither should our support. This means changing not only what we finance, but how we finance it. The Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage is innovating climate finance by simplifying access and putting countries at the heart of how we operate. Access should not be a test of how countries can navigate our systems. It should be a measure of how well our systems serve countries. And access is not only about procedures, it's also about time. When disasters strike, support must move quickly alongside other parts of the response. Yet these ambitions cannot be met without resources. The needs country have put before us far exceed what is currently available. We express our deepest appreciation to the Secretary-General and Member States who throughout the General Assembly have called for the Fund to be fully mobilized and for it to work at scale. This is more than a financing gap. It is a test of our collective commitment and solidarity. Trust begins by listening to countries and grows when institutions can deliver. As we all look toward COP31, let us remember, early warnings must lead to action, and global commitments must lead to real support. Trust is not restored by words alone. It is restored when countries and communities facing loss and damage are no longer left to face it alone. This is what the fund was created to do, and we look forward to working with everyone here to turn that promise into a reality. Thank you very much.

I thank Ms. Jiye Kim. And now I give the floor to Mr. Kamal Kishore, Senior Representative of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, who is going to join us remotely.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. At the outset, I would like to thank the President of the General Assembly for convening this important event ahead of COP31. Excellencies, it's been 51 days since the terrible disaster happened in Nepal, and yet the effect it has had on people of Nepal but also on our consciousness across the world is still reverberating through the entire global system. It's really important that we take a fresh look at how we work on early warning systems, how we redouble our efforts to strengthen early warning systems across the world. His Excellency, the Permanent Representative of Nepal has already laid out a very very well articulated agenda for strengthening early warning systems and building resilience of mountain communities. So I will not repeat that. He has covered all the different dimensions from the space to the sea of different of strengthening early warning systems for people who live in mountain regions. I just want to highlight three points this afternoon in our deliberations. The first point is that it's really important that when we pursue early warning systems, we take a multi-hazard approach. We've seen what happened in Nepal. Even in a single event, it's very difficult to characterize what was the principal hazard. It was not one hazard, it was multiple cascading hazards. Traditionally, historically, we've been good at predicting, warning, and issuing, predicting, issuing warning, and disseminating warning for single hazards. We have to do the same for multiple hazards across the world. We also have to redouble our efforts to understand how cascading hazards unfold. What is the kind of imagination, what is the kind of application of science we bring to it so that we do a better job of warning for cascading hazards. In that regard, as His Excellency from Nepal said, simply installing rain gauges and river flow meters is not going to be enough. We need to have a much stronger, more comprehensive observational network across the world for multiple hazards. My second point, Excellencies, is that in our quest for resilience, we really must take into account the local level initiative, local level imagination, local level resourcefulness, not as an end point, but as a starting point. The memories, even in the midst of the 26th August tragedy, the memory of the headmaster through his awareness, how he saved 900 lives, 900 students are still fresh. It's really important that whatever we do, truly builds the agency of communities at the local level. They are not subjects of our intervention. They are principal actors of a strong early warning systems. And in this, Excellencies, I would say that in our quest for resilience, no technology is too advanced and no technology is too humble. Let's use whatever is at our disposal, whether it is the most advanced technology in terms of cell broadcast so that every person is reached, or it is community level leaders who use community level mechanisms to detect early signs of impending hazard event and communicate it. It's really important that we build a network of such resources available at the community level, whether it is high tech or humble community level, all has to come together in service of community's resilience. My third and final point, Excellencies, is that no early warning is good enough if it is not acted upon, and acting upon it requires resources. Earlier in May, a global report on the anticipatory action work of last one year was released, and we saw how effective it is to anticipate a hazard event and provide resources at the local level in advance of an event, not after the event has already occurred. We know that the payoffs are multiple times, yet only 1% of the humanitarian financing is going into anticipatory action. The anticipatory action as an area of practice has proven its effectiveness up over the last 10 years yet we are not putting enough resources in anticipatory action same can be said for wider disaster risk reduction efforts his Excellency from Nepal talked about building resilient infrastructure building resilient schools and hospitals which can withstand these hazards all of that requires investment that investment has huge payoff so let's get together and see how we are going to finance, early action, anticipatory action, and investment in building resilience of all our systems. Thank you very much, Excellencies. Back to you.

And I thank Mr. Kamal Kishore. Moving to Ms. Laura Pederson, who is the World Meteorological Organization representative and coordinator to the United Nations and other international organizations in North America. And the question for Ms. Patterson is, climate variability and more frequent extremes are placing increasing pressure on forecasting, observation, and preparedness systems. What should governments and communities prioritize to prepare for periods of heightened climate volatility, and how can regional and global meteorological cooperation improve the availability and use of reliable impact-based forecasts at the local level. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you to the organizers of today's event, and also thank you, Ambassador, for your excellent intervention. I don't think I have too much more to add, actually. I feel like you answered my question very well. Of course, we send our sincere condolences to the people of Nepal, too. The last WMO state of the climate report highlighted that the past 11 years have been the warmest 11 years on record. We are now moving into a strong El Nino event, which is going to boost those temperatures even more, particularly through next year. That will alter rainfall patterns around the planet and give a temporary acceleration in sea level rise. The warming effect is felt already from the tops of the highest mountains to the depths of the oceans. So far, we have seen that glaciers globally have lost 5 per cent of their total volume since the year 2000. That is not even. In Europe, they have lost 39 per cent of their total volume. That melting compounds the risks in mountain regions that we have seen so graphically earlier today. But also 90% of the heat that's accumulated in our earth system is going straight into our oceans. This is resulting in sea level rise, which is accelerating and will continue for centuries. This obviously increases the risk of coastal flooding events, and we can expect, at least, irrespective of our emissions pathway, we'll expect another 50 centimetres of global sea level rise by the year 2100. And whilst, you know, 50 centimetres sounds as 50 centimetres. However, it is not even across the planet. Some areas see twice the rate as others. Just that 50 centimetres can lead to an increase in certain low-lying regions of a change from having a flooding event three times a year to having it 300 times a year. That makes an area quite quickly really inhabitable. By 2100, it cannot be ruled out that we could see 2m of global sea level rise due to complex ice melting processes. On early warning systems, we are making good progress. We now have two thirds of countries reporting that they have early warning systems in place, and we have seen a 50 per cent increase in comprehensiveness over the past 10 years. New data that was released this week by the Lloyd Register Foundation, through its world risk poll, highlighted that 80 per cent of people who were impacted by disasters over the past five years received at least one warning. There is, however, a close correlation in that figure between the number of people who received the warning and their national incomes. The lowest level was only 47% in central and western Africa. We can also see, as has been highlighted today, there's a significant difference between those who receive a warning and are able to act on the warning. In low and middle income countries, only half of those reportedly receiving a warning were able to act. However, we cannot just fully focus on improving only that part of the value chain. New research also highlights that, in developing countries, a one-day forecast has similar accuracy to a seven-day forecast in developed countries. We can see that the level of accuracy and predictive capability in the developing world is still significantly held back. what should Governments and communities prioritise to address this? First of all, it is very much a systems approach. As we have said, early warnings are only effective if they lead to early action, and we also need to improve the accuracy of the scientific warnings. Creating and sustaining early warning systems is a challenging business. You need to understand the risk, maintain observation networks, retain qualified staff, operate forecasting models, deliver 24/7 services and continuously build partnerships across Government departments to ensure that the right legislation, accountabilities and agreements are in place to ensure that early action can take place. We need to strengthen communication channels and educate and inform communities on preparedness. Any chain is only as strong as its weakest point, and, as we have heard, there are weaknesses throughout the chain. Countries and communities must therefore prioritise a systems approach when approaching the issue. in both their national early warning activities and in international development finance. The climate risk early warning systems initiative, or CREWS initiative, is an excellent example of where the systems approach is embedded in the nature of the initiative. This morning, we also heard about the water at the heart project in the Netherlands, across East Africa, which is rooted in the systems approach, covering all aspects from the observations right through to the early action. Secondly, we need to think about sustainability in the long term. Early warning systems capacity takes a long time to build. We need long-term commitments and partnerships, and we need to move away from project-by-project approaches. We need to be thinking in projects on day one how the costs and accountabilities will be handled in the longer term. The systematic observations financing facility is a good example of how that is baked into its model. Through peer-to-peer support and long-term results-based financing, it has an approach that sets in a long-term, sustainable approach to delivering impact. On the question of how regional and global co-operation can help, the new report that was released just this week offers some insights. One of the aspects that was highlighted in the report is that, for those who are impacted by tropical cyclones, 94 per cent of people receive a warning. That is quite impressive. Partly, that is because of a concerted effort over the past 50 years for international collaboration on the topic. The WMO's tropical cyclone programme collaborates across borders to advance science, communication methods and forecasting methods to address what was one of the most deadliest hazards. The death rates from tropical cyclones have reduced dramatically over the past 50 years, and the tropical cyclone hazard shows what progress can be made. If we compare that with floods, which, of those surveyed through the new report, was the impact that people had felt the most, only 74 per cent of people received warning of a flood. There are physical differences between why you might receive a warning of a flood and why you might receive a warning of a tropical cyclone, but we would argue that all those things can be overcome. Many of the issues that result in the reduced amount of early warning systems being received on flooding are fixable. One issue is that we see reduced data sharing across borders on water. For some reason, atmospheric data is shared very freely, but hydrological data is not shared across borders as much. We also see challenges in having to collaborate across scientific domains. Tropical cyclones are very much an issue of the atmosphere with some inputs from the ocean, whereas a flood includes land data, hydrological data, and atmospheric data, and cryospheric data, as we've seen in the Nepal situation. And we really need to bring these sectors of science together to address these issues. There are also higher resolution factors related to flooding. However, with new technologies, it is possible to overcome those challenges. All those things can be changed with the right political support, the right intentions and the right drive. The WMO Commons is a new financing partnership that is designed to improve international collaboration on issues such as that. WMO is committed to early warning systems and that will not fade. And we look forward very much to working with you all to help address these gaps. Thank you.

I thank Ms. Patterson. And now I'll give the floor to Mr. Rafael Peralta, Director of the New York Office in North America for United Nations Environment Programme. And the question is, As the world confronts the prospect of overshooting 1.5 degrees Celsius, adaptation and preparedness must address slow onset changes as well as sudden disasters. How can multilateral environmental action better connect glacier loss, sea level rise, ecosystem change, and extreme events in risk assessment, reporting, planning, and action, and ensure that these analysis results in support for the communities most exposed? Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Stadesco. Thank you, Excellency, colleagues, for being here with us this afternoon on a Friday. I know you probably have better places to be, but we understand that this is a critical conversation. We're extremely grateful to the President of the General Assembly for bringing us together today. I also want to express our most sincere sympathy and solidarity to the Ambassador of Nepal. We know what happened to your country will have long-lasting effects, and we will be there to support you. Let me start with a hard fact. As UNEP has recently stated in its overshoot report just a few weeks ago, we are going to exceed the 1.5 degree threshold in the Paris Agreement. Now, current national plans are very clear, pointing in a direction that will bring us, if there's no further improvement, to 2.3 to 2.5 degrees of warming this century. And 1.5 degrees remains a central goal because every fraction of a degree matters and every year above it matters. But at the same time, we must prepare for overshoot. Temperatures rising past this 1.5 threshold will mean that we will need to peak and if we act, come back down quickly. But coming down quickly, it's not going to have immediate effects. It's not like you can turn on and off the switch. We know that even when temperatures come down, The damages will not be reversed immediately. Glaciers will be lost, and they will not return in our lifetimes. As my colleague from WMO mentioned, seas and the level of oceans will continue to rise for centuries, and reefs, mangroves, and mountain ecosystems that protect communities may cross thresholds of no return. So temperature decline will not mean recovery immediately, and certainly not for the communities at the front lines. And we also need to recognize that our own institutions are not prepared for a world of overshoot. They will be under unprecedented demands, and they will need to address increasing adaptation requirements that will also expose governance systems to prolonged uncertainty and create systemic stresses. Now, coming straight to some of the pointers to answer the question for Mr. Tedesco, First, I want to highlight, as mentioned by the Ambassador of Nepal and other discussions today, the need to assess risk as a system, not hazard by hazard, as we have so often done. Now, slow onset change increases the odds of sudden disaster. There's no question about that. We know what happens with glaciers when they retreat and lakes burst. into floods. We know what sea level rise means when it turns into ordinary storm surge into a catastrophe. And we know that degraded mangroves and wetlands remove the buffer that actually protect them. So yes, for now, we're still monitoring glaciers, coastlines, and ecosystems, and weather, unfortunately, in separate silos and reporting on them under separate processes. So risk assessments, national adaptation plans, and early warning systems need to come together, we need to try to combine environmental observation, climate science and local knowledge and treat ecosystem health and early warning indicators in their own right. And as mentioned by Mr. Kamal, this must be done by putting together, by putting local at the center. Now, second, we must ensure that analysis leads to action. Analysis on its own is not good enough. A report protects no one on its own. Assessments must translate into decision triggers through pre-agreed thresholds that release finance, activate anticipatory action, scale up social protection, or start planning for relocation before a community is forced to flee. Investments should be staged and reversible because ultimately we while we need to move fast under uncertainty, we also have to compromise. We also have to ensure that we don't compromise on environmental integrity, human rights or community safeguards. And we also must be honest about the limits of adaptation. Some losses that may impact territory, culture and ancestral land or species. cannot be adapted away. And so we need to recognize the limits of the adaptation strategies and how we make sure that they are addressed through loss and damage and not left unanswered. And thirdly, getting finance to the front line and doing so early. Adaptation is, of course, an investment. It is not a cost. We know that every dollar that is invested in climate resilient infrastructure in low and middle income countries actually avoids $4 in losses. And we know that delays falls on those that are least able to pay. Small island developing countries have sustained about $153 billion in disaster losses since 1970s, and 70% of those losses were above the sustainability thresholds. Likewise, each disaster is raising the borrowing cost and is crowding out the preparedness or the resilient efforts that would prevent the next disaster. And so grants and highly consistent financing must be central for the most vulnerable, including for what project finance often neglects, climate information, local planning, capacity, monitoring, and institutional memory. And ultimately, we need the communities to be in the room when decisions are taken on what to protect, transform, and relocate. We have to trust that they know better than the experts of time. Thank you very much.

I thank Mr. Peralta. And now I have a closing question for all panelists. So we'll be following the same order as before. And the question is, what is the one concrete commitment or partnership that could be advanced before COP31 to help vulnerable countries strengthen people-centered, end-to-end, multi-hazard early warning systems? And I repeat the question for the different panelists in case. Thank you.

Thank you, moderator, again. And it just, our UNEP colleagues just highlighted that with the growing risk of oversitting 1.5 degrees Celsius, in that sense, you already know that based in Kathmandu also, there's some scientists have already warning the warming is being amplified at the higher elevation across the Himalaya mountain regions, which is causing a lot of the disasters. In that sense, the cascading climate disaster demand urgent action. Secondly, what I think that is, since we already agreed that mountain ecosystems are on the front line of climate crisis, therefore the mountain deserve greater prominence and attention in the climate processes, including the systematic integrations across the relevant UNFCCC frameworks. Thirdly, let me highlight that we must move from monitoring to anticipations, warning to early actions, and damage assessment to resilient recovery. For this, We need to have the stronger partnerships, accessible technology, and sustained finance. And from Nepal's side, we call for establishing a satellite-based, technology-driven, integrated Himalayan disaster monitoring and early warning systems and rapid response partnerships that connects pre-disaster risk assessment, real-time monitoring, local knowledge, community capacity building, and anticipatory actions and early warning with rapid post-disasters assessment and recovery. As highlighted, most of you, and then especially our DRR chief, Kishore Kamal, Given the transboundary nature of the Himalayan hazards and their cascading impacts on life, livelihoods, infrastructures, and water security, this initiative must be supported through grant-based climate finance and collaborative research with particular attention to the needs of the vulnerable mountain countries and mountain communities. I thank you.

Thank you, Ambassador. Do you want me to repeat the question? Okay. What is the one concrete commitment or partnership that could be advanced before COP31 to help vulnerable countries strengthen people-centered, end-to-end, multi-hazard early warning systems? Thank you.

Thank you very much. In terms of the One Commitment and Partnership, and just noting COP31 is not too far away, we do want to emphasize that at the heart of FRLD and the work that we do is to ensure that countries sit at the driver's seat. And we don't just say this in words, but we also mean it in how we practice our operations and our programming. In terms of the pipeline that the fund for responding to loss and damage has received, all of these, each one and every request, was country-led and country-owned in its development and design. However, the fund can only support all of these requests with the funding that it has received to disperse. And this is where the mobilization is critical in order for the FRLD to be a true and relevant and fast delivery partner for the countries that we are all trying to serve. From the perspective of Nepal and other countries that have faced or will face similar circumstances, the emphasis on rapid and being able to disperse funding to the ground as quickly as we can will become a more and more important priority of our climate finance landscape. In this regard, the one commitment that we can make as a fund is that we will ensure and continue to ensure that countries have the ability to have the support when they need it most. Our second commitment is to ensure that we will advocate and continue to advocate for the country's voices in ensuring their needs and priorities are heard. The third is ensuring that we can operate quickly, rapidly, and in a simplified manner for our countries, and also demonstrating that direct access without intermediaries can work and can be a reality for our many countries that we are serving. We look forward to the further discussions at COP31, and we do ask that everybody is engaged in how we will be mobilizing now for further resources to be contributed to this fund so that we are able to deliver for the countries that have asked for the support of the fund. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Kim. Ms. Patterson, do you want me to repeat the question? Okay, I'll give the floor to Ms. Patterson. Thank you.

Thank you so much. I think the one commitment that we would ask for is obviously we appreciate the wide and varied support to early warning systems but particularly given the importance of looking at them as a full holistic system I would just encourage whichever part of the system perhaps your country, your organization are most heavily focusing on I would encourage you to think about how your area connects across the system and how it can further strengthen the system as a whole. There is a lot of research on early warning systems that shows that our expertise collects and mounds around certain areas, but the bridges joining those mounds together are very weak. It is the weaker spots that cause the challenges when a crisis comes. So if you're investing in early action, we would recommend, you know, potentially looking also at how the findings of the implementation of the early action can feed into reforming legislation or strengthening the partnerships with the NMHSs. If you are investing in atmospheric modelling, we encourage you to reach out to the local communities to get feedback and testing on how well the predictions result in on-the-ground realities. Whichever area of early warning systems you are focusing on, please reach out across the divides and help to make the whole system work as one. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. I now give the floor for the question to Mr. Kamal Kishore, who is online, and I'm going to repeat the question. What is the one concrete commitment or partnership that could be advanced before COP31 to help vulnerable countries strengthen people-centered, end-to-end, multi-hazard, early warning systems? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Excellency. In the spirit of leave no one behind, I would say that it's now time to set a resilience agenda, disaster and climate resilience agenda for the people of the high mountains across the world, whether they are in the Himalayas, they are in Andes, Alps or Rockies. The high mountain communities have special needs. They have special kinds of vulnerabilities. They are more exposed to risks that have been exacerbated as a result of climate change, as a result of increased exposure to emerging hazards. So if we could put our thoughts together and come up with a resilience agenda for mountain communities across the world, that would be a legacy of COP31.

Thank you. And the question for Mr. Peralta, do you want me to repeat it? Okay, thank you.

And it's hard to come last because I believe everything has been said, but I would just add one final point. I think it Funding at the end is where the rubber hits the road. We can have the best systems, we can have the best programs of work, we can have the best integration, but without sufficient funding, we will not see the mitigation that we need, the adaptation that we need, and the loss and damage fund will not be sufficiently capitalized. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Peralta. Before I open the floor for statements, I'd like to remind delegations that there is no established list of speakers. I would like to remind delegations also that the time limit for statements will be three minutes for delegations speaking in their national capacity and five minutes for statements made on behalf of a group of states. Time limits will be strictly enforced through an automatic microphone cutoff. To assist delegations in managing their time, a countdown clock will be displayed on the screen. Participants are encouraged to engage interactively and avoid reading from written statements. Delegations wishing to speak are requested to press the microphone button. And I thank you for cooperation. I now open the floor for comments and questions. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Nepal, followed by Burundi and France. Thank you.

Thank you, dear moderator. Nepal thanks the President of the General Assembly for convening this timely discussion ahead of COP31 and the panelists for their insights. Nepal's Sagarmatha to the Sea initiative highlights the connections between melting glaciers, changing river systems, and rising seas as you face one interconnected climate crisis. As climate risk transcends national borders, what happens in the Himalayas has consequences for downstream communities, while glacier loss also contributes to sea level rise, threatening coastal and island nations. The recent climate-induced floods in Nepal are a stark reminder that a single disaster can claim many precious lives, destroy critical infrastructures, and undermine decades of development gains overnight. And in this particular context, let me express deep appreciation and gratitude to all the UN member states, development partners, and all the distinguished panelists over there for your sympathy, solidarity, and also for the critical humanitarian assistance during these challenging times. They really matter a lot. And I also wish to reiterate the call from my ambassador that the mountain ecosystem should get more prominence and political attention across climate processes, including UNFCCC framework. And we need to reimagine early warning system from individual hazards to interconnected risk. This requires better glacier monitoring, high altitude observation networks, real-time data, satellite technologies, and integrated multi-hazard forecasting that the distinguished panelists also highlighted in their intervention. From mountains to the sea, early warning requires a stronger regional and transboundary cooperation. We need a stronger partnership among upstream and downstream countries to ensure that warnings travel faster than disasters. Early warning must translate into early action backed by adequate, predictable and grant-based climate finance, equitable access to technology and capacity building support for most climate vulnerable mountainous and coastal countries like Nepal, community preparedness, evacuation plans, resilient infrastructure and effective institutions are equally indispensable. COP31 must demonstrate tangible progress on existing climate finance commitments, including tripling adaptation finance alongside new and increased pledges. The growing risk of overshoot demands urgent action to limit its magnitude and duration while keeping 1.5 degree centigrade goal within reach. The just transition mechanisms should be operationalized with clear functions and governance, addressing the particular needs of vulnerable developing countries, including energy access, poverty, debt burdens.

I thank the distinguished representative of Nepal. And I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Burundi, followed by France and United Arab Emirates.

Moderator, Brandy, thanks the Office of the President of the General Assembly for this discussion. And we would like to express our sympathy with our brothers in Nepal with what happened. And we'd like to congratulate all the panelists for their very enriching briefings. Climate-related disasters remind us that early warning should not be limited to forecasting a hazard. It must make it possible to transmit reliable information, to mobilize communities and trigger actions capable of protecting human lives. As a developing, landlocked country, Burundi is particularly concerned by floods, landslides, droughts and disruptions to rainfall patterns. We're also aware of the global consequences of glacier melt and sea level rise, which threaten coastal and island states. and can affect food systems, infrastructure and livelihoods far beyond the areas directly exposed, the legitimate concerns and claims of coastal and island states must be heard. In this regard, we'd like to highlight three priorities. First, It is essential to integrate scientific observations, forecasting technologies, meteorological and hydrological data, as well as local knowledge into multi-hazard early warning systems capable of detecting sudden hazards, slow onset risks and cascading impacts. Secondly, a warning is only effective if it reaches people in time and in a language that they understand. And that was stressed by the Permanent Representative of Nepal. We must therefore strengthen local communications, community preparedness and anticipatory action mechanisms, paying particular attention to women, youth and the most vulnerable. When warning time is measured in minutes, every link in the chain matters. Thirdly, these warning systems require predictable financing, accessible technologies and strengthened national capacities. International cooperation must enable developing countries to have the means needed to monitor risks, disseminate warnings and protect their populations. Facilitator, Burundi calls for early warning systems to be made a priority investment in adaptation and resilience. At COP31, we must promote concrete commitments in support of integrated, inclusive and operational systems that leave no community behind. In conclusion, we should do everything possible to anticipate risks of all Member States and coastal States and island States and do everything we can to prevent risks. Thank you.

I thank the distinguished representative of Burundi, and I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of France, followed by United Arab Emirates and Sudan. Thank you.

Mr. President, Chair, and dear colleagues. like to begin by thanking the briefers on the panel for the quality of their presentations and the responses to the various questions provided. Prevention of disasters and early warning systems, indeed, must be at the heart of our risk management strategy. Extreme weather events are getting worse and more frequent. They are amplified by climate change. such as the disaster that happened last August in Nepal and most recently in the Philippines. This is what convinced us in 2015 in Paris to adopt the Climate Risk, the Early Warnings Initiative, to have early warning systems in place. Today, more than 100 million people are affected every year by natural disasters, and that figure is only going to go up in the years to come. As was pointed out during the panel briefings, everything we invest in early warning systems means that we can protect, every euro protects four people. This really is an investment that saves lives. Um, it's, CRUSE, uh, the initiative was at the heart of our G7 presidency with the mobilization of the G7 and our partners, um, more than, uh, 16 million, uh, euro are going to benefit CRUSE in 2026. $150 million so far have been mobilized. That's made crews able to increase resilience for 400 million people in so many different countries. We're also working against latent threats such as sea level rise. And France welcomes and congratulates all the member states that have contributed to adopting last year in the General Assembly the first declaration on that subject. just one year after the third UN conference on oceans organized in Nice. Science must be at the heart of our response, and that's why we will continue to support the GEC and the GF and all bodies that have a mandate in the interface between science and politics, such as UNDP. Three years after the One Polus Summit, that saw how the glaciers are melting. UNESCO organized a donor conference in January in Chamonix to decide how we can address this problem. Thank you.

And I thank the distinguished representative of France. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the United Arab Emirates, followed by Sudan and Belgium. Thank you.

Mr. President, the United Arab Emirates would like to thank the distinguished panelists and would like to thank you for convening us today. We welcome Turkey as COP 31 presidency and Australia's leadership of the negotiations, building on the progress in Dubai, Baku and Belm. We commend Fiji and Tuvalu for hosting the pre-COP meeting in partnership with Australia and bringing the Pacific priorities to the center of this process. The UAE calls for accelerated implementation of the UAE consensus in full. COP31 should advance mitigation, adaptation, and means of implementation, keeping 1.5 within reach while supporting sustainable development. For developing countries most at risk, progress must mean stronger protection for people and ecosystems. Implementing the UAE framework for global climate resilience requires accessible finance, technology, and capacity building, particularly for small island developing states and least developed countries. We also call for collective action to strengthen climate resilience in countries affected by fragility, conflict, severe humanitarian needs. The COP28 Declaration on Climate Relief, Recovery and Peace provides a foundation for advancing this work with partners. At COP28, we helped operationalize the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage and pledged $100 million. We remain committed to ensuring Assistance reaches developing countries most affected by climate change. We call on developed countries to fulfill their commitments through timely, accessible support. As a coastal country in a water-scarce region, the UAE recognizes the connected risk of sea level rise, water scarcity, and climate-related disasters. Greater investment in early warning systems and anticipatory financing is essential to help communities prepare and act in time. This December, the UAE and Senegal will co-host the 2026 UN Water Conference in Abu Dhabi. Its Water for Planet dialogue connects climate action with ecosystems protection and disaster risk reduction. We encourage partners to use both COP 31 and the UN Water Conference to mobilize investment in water resilience, including protection against floods and droughts. Mr. President, we restore trust requires delivering on agreed commitments. The UAE stands ready to work with partners. Thank you.

And now I thank the distinguished representative of the United Arab Emirates. And I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Sudan, followed by Belgium.

Thank you, Mr. President. Excellencies, at the outset, Sudan expresses its gratitude for convening this vital meeting as we pave the way toward COP31 and align ourselves with the statement delivered on behalf of the G77 and China and the African groups. Mr. President, in fragile and war-affected settings, climate change acts as a brutal risk multiplier. At the same time, those affected regions receive the smallest share of global climate finance. Restoring trust in international climate action must begin by correcting this profound injustice. For Sudan, climate change is not a future projection. It is a daily struggle across the Sahara, the Sahel, and the banks of the Nile. We face both extremes. Deserts are advancing year after year, devastating floods, such as the catastrophic August 2024 collapse of the Arabat Dam, which swept away villages and served Port Sudan's main water source. For a nation reliant on rain-fed agriculture and livestock, these shocks strike directly at our survival and food security. Mr. President, we strongly support the early warning systems mechanisms, but a warning only saves lives if it reaches the people who need it most: our farmers, herders and displaced families. To make this happen, our weather and water services urgently need support to rebuild their network and improve local forecasting. To move from promises to action, Sudan calls for four concrete measures. First, A substantial increase in ground-based adaptation finance with direct access for war-affected countries. Second, an ambitious outcome on the global goal on adaptation at COP31, backed by concrete implementation. Third, the full capitalization and rapid operationalization of the Loss and Damage Fund. Fourth, technology transfer and capacity building through regional partners. In conclusion, Mr. President, trust is not built on promises, but on action, guided by equity and shared responsibilities. Sudan stands ready to work with all partners in Antalya so that no community is left behind. I thank you.

And I thank the distinguished representative of Sudan. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Belgium, followed by UN-Habitat.

Distinguished panelists, colleagues, Belgium is proud to address this panel as a dedicated champion of ocean climate action and as the co-chair of the Systematic Observations Financing Facility, or SOFF. Melting ice and rising seas present a shifting frontier of compounding security risks. Through SOF, Belgium is firmly committed to addressing a fundamental challenge of our time, the global gap in basic weather and climate observations. Even data centers and AI cannot function without reliable data, and the same is true for weather forecasting. Data are a global necessity of effective climate action, accurate forecasting, and the bedrock of lifesaving early warning systems. SOF invest mainly in least developed countries and small island developing states to support the implementation of the Global Basic Observing Network standards and transform how the world shares foundational data to build international resilience against severe weather phenomena. No single country can tackle the climate crisis in isolation. Local data gaps in one part of the world compromise forecast accuracy everywhere. Integrated observation via a much needed soft expansion needs more governments, philanthropies, development banks, and the private sector to strengthen this collective initiative. Together, we can ensure that no nation is left in the dark and that the UN's Early Warnings for All initiative becomes a tangible reality for everyone. We would like to ask the panel's views on how to successfully integrate non-traditional and private partners into innovative financing models for climate data and early warning. Thank you so much.

And I thank the distinguished representative of Belgium. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of UN-Habitat.

Thank you very much for convening this important gathering. As we prepare for COP, let be reminded that urban resilience is no longer a local issue alone. It's a central to achieving national and global climate goals. We know that 80% of the submitted national climate plans, the NDCs 3.0, include well-developed urban content. Yet, only 19% include dedicated urban climate finance. This creates a major implementation gap between ambition and delivery. Yet, climate resilience, low carbon cities in low and middle income countries in particular require more than 252 to 900 billion annually. This financial gap is felt most directly at the local level. It affects the urban planning, basic services, the cities, need the most. The challenge is even more acute in informal settlements, home to more than 1 billion people. These communities are already leading adaptation efforts through settlements, mapping, and upgrading initiative. Yet, they are often being overlooked in national climate planning. And as this community are struggling with access to climate finance. Housing and land use remain too often disconnected from climate strategies. Where climate, housing, land use policy are integrated, cities can achieve significant emission reductions while improving for affordable housing for all. Climate policy needs to be made for people and community. That climate action translate into cleaner air, more parks, shading, and jobs. UN-Habitat is proud to work with the COP31 presidency on the Sustainable Urban Resilience Financing Facility. There is a greater recognition of cities in climate policy, but financing has not yet kept pace. We are looking forward to bringing this message to the ministerial meeting on urbanization and climate change on 12th November and beyond to COP32. I thank you.

And I thank the representative of UN-Habitat. We are going to move now to the civil society. And I give the floor to the representative of the International Medical Crisis Response Alliance, followed by the Children and Youth International, and then by International Native Tradition Interchange. First, the International Medical Crisis Response Alliance. Rules remain unchanged. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, distinguished panelists, honored guests. The guiding question regarding how science, technology, and local knowledge can be combined to detect hazards and deliver actionable warning must be predicated by a critical and frequently overlooked consideration. That is, the population to whom these warnings are given must both trust them and be receptive to them at an early causal stage before a disaster occurs. We are living in an age when convincing imagery, videos, and texts, augmented by AI and wielded by self-serving entities and mega corporations in furtherance of their own short-term interests, have severely undermined popular trust in conventional science and environmentalism. We have repeatedly seen how global climate change is actively and strategically dismissed as a fantasy and how local disorders, global pandemics, and the sequelae of extreme weather are attributed to anything other than the actual man-made causes. Examples of this, especially carried and shared on unvetted social media, are legion. This is a serious global problem that is ignored only at our hazard. The entities largely responsible for the environmental depredations behind the issues we're dealing with today realized long ago that they can only remain in power so long as there is strong and large-scale popular support or at least tolerance for their activities. Hence, in this nation, as in many others, there is a litany of misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda or MDP specifically designed to woo populations away from trust, belief in, and response to the warnings and recommendations of conventional, environmental, and empirical science. While the early warning plans and advice elucidated here in advance of COP31 are innovative and critically important, the target populations must be receptive to and energized by them. At the same time, they must be capable of recognizing MDP for what it is and rejecting it in favor of reality. This is not easily done. MDP is carefully and strategically designed to be psychologically seductive and highly convincing to the populations it is aimed at. It is also clear that rational refutations, presentations of fact, are largely ineffective as they are both anticipated and preemptively short-circuited by the extraordinarily well-financed producers of MDP. My organization, IMCRA, in recognition of the importance of the psychological aspect of information presentation, has developed a program called DTTC, or Disseminating Truth in Telecommunications, which specifically uses the same proven successful psychologically seductive techniques as has been used elsewhere. We can be found at www.

I thank the representative for International Medical Crisis Response Alliance. I now give the floor to the representative of Children and Youth International, followed by International Native Tradition Interchange. Thank you.

Mr. President, distinguished delegates, I'm speaking on behalf of the Major Group for Children and Youth, the designated children and youth constituency in the UN system, representing over 20,000 organizations. We are also part of the broader Major Groups and Other Stakeholders Coordination Mechanism. Children and young people did not cause the climate crisis, yet we will live with its consequences the longest. As UNICEF finds that nearly two in three children are exposed to accelerating climate shocks. In 2025, the ICJ confirmed that states have a binding legal obligation to protect the climate system with 1.5 as a primary goal and elevated the principle of intergenerational equity. Looking ahead to COP31, we have five priorities. First, keep 1.5 within reach and close the ambition gap. Every tenth of a degree is measured in lost schooling, displaced families, and disrupted childhoods. COP31 must adopt the transition away from fossil fuels with a concrete, time-bound, and equitable roadmap, ending all fossil fuel expansion and subsidies. That transition must be just, gender-responsive, and conflict-sensitive. Second, deliver finance that reaches the frontline. The COP30 call to triple adaptation finance by 2035 must translate into a clear baseline, annual milestones, and transparent reporting. Climate finance must be grant-based, accessible, and directed to communities, not trapped in complex processes that those affected cannot navigate. This cannot happen in silo. We echo the call for urgent reform of the international financial architecture, including a sovereign convention on debt, addressing cost of capital, and the corporate capture. Third, make loss and damage real. For many young people, particularly in SIDS and LDCs, climate impacts are not a future risk. They are already disrupting lives, displacing communities and threatening cultural heritage. The fund for responding to loss and damage must be adequately resourced and responsive to our needs, including education, health and protection. Fourth, adopt an ambitious action for climate empowerment action plan at COP31. Climate education must be embedded in national curricula alongside climate science literacy and tools to counter disinformation. We urge parties to appoint young negotiators and establish child and youth climate councils with protected seats for girls, indigenous youth, and young people with disabilities. Fifth, protect those who protect the planet. We call for protection for young and women and human rights and environmental defenders and peace builders. Together with age, gender, and disability data, no child is invisible in climate as outlined in the to be launched global framework on children, youth, climate, peace and security. Finally, under and beyond the UN80 initiative, we are called upon ECOSOC and the GA to connect climate action to sustainable development and all pillars of the UN and strengthen country level programming on climate action. Thank you.

I thank the representative for Children and Youth International. And I give the floor now to the representative for International Native Tradition Interchange.

Good afternoon. I want to thank the President of the General Assembly for this opportunity. The United Nations recognizes over 300 million indigenous people around the world. Believe it or not, I spoke in this very room in 1993 for the International Day of Indigenous Peoples, and what I am going to say will be pretty much the same. For us Indigenous peoples, Mother Earth is alive. She sustains our life. And water is sacred. Water is life for each and every one of us. The representation of indigenous people should be at the highest level. And my organization has been calling for the assignment of an ambassador for indigenous people so that we can be at the table and participate. We are the guardians of Mother Earth, and we managed to keep the balance of the ecosystems of Earth for thousands of years. Climate change didn't just occur. It is the systematic destruction of Mother Earth by corporations, helped by the science. What will be the future of our children if we continue to do business as usual? Corporations need to be held accountable, and those finances should be used to help the people that have been affected. in countries and in situations like Nepal. Indigenous people's traditional knowledge needs to be at the center of climate negotiations, and we need to be in Turkey. And I ask the government of Turkey to secure a delegation of Indigenous people for COP31. Thank you very much.

I thank the representative for International Native Tradition Interchange. I now give the floor to the distinguished panelists to respond to the comments and questions for final comments. I give the word to His Excellency to the Ambassador of Nepal, Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, moderator, again. First of all, I'm so happy and deeply appreciate all the delegations including from the civil society, for your very constructive comments during the interactive session. And I'm also deeply moved by your sentiments and solidarity, what happened in Nepal in August, also in the last weeks. And I thank for your condolence over the loss, huge loss of lives in Nepal during those, the disasters. And from the mountains, all the colleagues, if we summarize from the mountain to the sea, a lot of colleagues, you have aptly highlighted the need to have the science-based, technology-led, integrated, and multi-hazard early warning systems. Similarly, I fully agreed with you all that there should be the adequate, accessible, affordable finance technology, transfer of technology and capacity building support to those communities and countries who are really in need. And regional cooperation is also, you know, some of the delegation rates which is really needed because we already know that a lot of disasters are happening now, including Nepal, it's a transboundary nature, that is the reasons. That's why we need strong global cooperation to address these problems. Similarly, I really thank all the delegations for highlighting the needs to translate the commitment into stronger actions in order to address these problems. The colleagues from the Habitat already mentioned that on the housing policies and planning. As in my interventions, opening remarks, I also highlighted the needs to have the need to embed the early warning system, multi-hazards informations into the infrastructures planning, land use planning, water management, also in the housing planning, of course, it is really needed. I thank you all again for engaging with us and then for your contributions throughout the sessions. Thank you.

And I thank His Excellency for his final comments. I'll give the floor now to Ms. Jiha Kim for the final remarks. Maybe one of the points that were discussed was What do you think are key priorities for the next months and where do you hope to be in a year from now?

Thank you very much and to all the speakers in the panel today and also to those who participated in the dialogue. We also wanted to especially appreciate the President of the General Assembly and his team, who has enabled us to be here and to be able to converse and dialogue with with you today on this important topic. Indeed, you know, as the fund responding to loss and damage, we are what we say, the new kid on the block. And we do join an existing family of funds that exist under the UNFCCC. We've heard many of these, the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund, the Global Environmental Facility, and many others who are providing similar forms of climate finance into the space. We are the new kid because we were recently established. We have a very small secretariat. We are growing very quickly. Our governance structures, our institutional setup is now maturing month by month. But also we do have a big mandate in front of us, which is also to learn from the existing history of the other climate funds, to try to innovate, to be better, to be faster, to be simpler, and to prove that actually direct access to countries can be a reality and not an obstacle for those who seek. The FRLD, for now, we are in our startup phase, and we call this the Barbados implementation modalities. And as I mentioned to you, our call was closed this June, and we received $2.8 billion of US dollars of funding requests that were submitted. All of these, each and every one, has an urgent and priority of the country behind it. And we are rapidly operationalizing to ensure that the fund is not only verbally promising support to countries, but also showing that we are now delivering support to these countries who have requested for the support. We are expecting for the first funding approvals to take place before the end of this year at our next board meeting. We are also expecting to launch a country support system, which will provide technical assistance and readiness type support for the many developing countries that not only struggle with accessing finance, but also may need technical assistance and capacity building to implement and execute finance on the ground. So we look forward to providing you with these updates as we move forward in the next months. The next part of our homework next year will be to move from our startup into our long-term operations, and this is not an easy task. For now, in our startup phase, we have initiated and operationalized mostly project-based funding. The next homework for us will be to see what other diverse modalities we can offer to countries, but also to communities. This could include forms of rapid disbursement. It could be prearranged, post-arranged. There could be elements of how we build in risk-based and risk-sharing mechanisms. We also look at community-based access and how communities may be able to engage directly with this fund. There may be other financial instruments and tools and mechanisms that we may be able to operationalize as a toolkit for countries to support them in having more options to be able to support their needs. By the time we come back at this time next year, we hope to be able to say we have graduated and matured from being the new kid. And now we are hope we hope that in the in the time next year, we will be able to say we were successfully operationalized. We have learned from our startup phase and we will continue to advance in our work to ensure country led and country owned programming remains as the heart of the fund. And that simplified access and supported execution remains a principle. that the fund abides by. Thank you very much for the time today, and we look forward to engaging with every one of you in partnerships to allow for us to be able to do this work. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Kim. And with Ms. Patterson, feel free to comment, but also feel free to maybe address some of the new tech that might be deployed to help strengthen multi-hazard early warning systems, if you wish. Thank you so much.

Including from civil society, up in the back of the room. I am an ex-operational meteorologist, and I can vouch that the gap between the scientifically modelled environment and the reality of mother nature is real. You ignore the indigenous knowledge at your own peril. On what we heard and what we were asked, I heard Belgium asking about how we integrate non-traditional technology and partners, and the question was also on new technologies. We have to acknowledge that AI presents huge possibilities for predicting multi-hazard events. In the weather prediction space, Historically, you would have needed a supercomputer that cost perhaps $100 million, or quite a bit more in some places, that runs on around 2 million lines of code to accurately model and predict the equations of physics and equations of motion around data points all across the planet and project that forward. It's an incredibly power intensive, compute intensive, expertise intensive role. What we're seeing with the potential for artificial intelligence powered weather prediction is that you can get instances, the same level of accuracy of predictions on a $5,000 laptop that can be trained very quickly I have to stress that the reason that that is possible is because we have the data that those supercomputers have created over many years. It does not mean that we can fully turn them off, otherwise the AI models would just degrade over time, but it does mean that there is a potential for a huge democratisation of those types of predictions. all countries could have their own prediction systems that allow much easier for them to integrate their own local observations that help to drive the accuracy of the weather and predictions in their regions. So we really are on the cusp of a huge potential explosion in the ability to use this information. I think also in the earlier conversations, there was a lot about the focus of being multi-hazard. And historically, this has meant combining different scientific disciplines into this one cohesive Earth system model. And some of the processes of how these, the boundaries of different sciences combine is one of the more challenging parts of the scientific challenge. Whereas, again, artificial intelligence yields great potential to be able to join up these boundaries in a far less cost intensive way. Similarly, when we think about the potential impacts, how the weather or Earth system prediction will impact on our human-made societies, on our cities, on our drainage systems, again, with the right data, this is something that artificial intelligence could yield great results for. As Belgium highlighted as well, this is dependent, this actually makes observation data even more important. And, you know, coming back to the Nepal example, there are 54,000 glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalayas, and yet only 37 of them have ground-based observation networks for their glaciers. There is even more need to invest in the observing networks to be able to unlock that potential in scientific possibility. That brings me to the issue that was raised at the back of the room about trust. Of course, we all would have a view on how we follow a weather warning that we know has been completely created by AI versus traditional methods. Trust, and people have to be central to this process. We have to be training people. We have to be investing in that capacity so that people can understand and use and build these AI systems to serve people. Trust is also something that we find. Typically, national weather presenters often yield one of the greatest levels of trust across society. At the WMO, we work very closely with networks of weather presenters, given their trusted status in society, on how to convey difficult messages. There are different ways in which we can use intermediaries to help build on the trust issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Patterson. I'm not sure we still have online Mr. Kamal Kishore for a last comment. I will move forward. Mr. Peralta, would you like to address Last comments.

I will be very, very brief, particularly because we've been joined by the President of General Assembly and we're almost against the hour. I will just note in relation to the question of non-traditional partnerships, how, for example, in the Pacific, we have a project working on climate information, early warning systems, where beyond obviously engaging with meteorological services and disaster responders, we have extended the network of data providers and of contributors to our efforts bringing obviously community organizations, indigenous and local knowledge holders, private technology firms, but also university and research institutions, and very, very importantly, also sector specific users. We're bringing in farmers, utilities, businesses, fishermen, and this is creating a web, a complex web of providers where everybody not only feels accountable, but everybody benefits from the data and the work that they put in. And we believe that it is going, it's already beginning to deliver real value added and we believe that in years to come, it will be a game changer for the region. I'll leave it there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Peralta. We've heard the last speaker in our panel discussion. I would like to thank the panelists and all the participants for their active engagement. As indicated in the program, the closing segment will take place next, and I now hand over the meeting back to the President of the General Assembly, and please remain seated for a brief podium change. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Moderator, Mr. Tedesca, and all the panelists for your very active engagement and insightful comments on very critical issues that we face ahead of COP 31. I will now make a closing statement as President of the General Assembly. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you all again for participating in today's special event, A Planet Fit for the Future, Restoring Trust Through Climate Action. This event of today advances my pledge to mainstream climate resilience and environmental sustainability across General Assembly deliberations and processes. It also responds to the urgency underscored by recent devastating disasters, including the one we have seen in Nepal and China. Allow me to extend my appreciation to the Permanent Representatives of Australia, Brazil, Ethiopia, and Turkey for ably setting the stage and for outlining what is at stake at COP31. I also once again thank our panel moderator, Dr. Marco Tedesco, and all panelists and speakers who helped drive our discussion on strengthening multi-hazard early warning systems in a changing climate. Excellencies, Today's discussions conveyed an unmistakable message. Climate threats are intensifying, their consequences are multiplying, and our collective response must match the speed and scale of the crisis. On adaptation and resilience, we have heard how likely we are to overshoot the 1.5 degree goal and the implications this has on long-term adaptation efforts. Every increment of warming compounds vulnerability. Every delay makes adaptation harder, costlier, and for some communities, less attainable. The COP31 presidency's focus on resilient cities, vulnerable regions, and ecosystems offers an opportunity to translate these warnings into practical protection for people and livelihoods. On finance, the message was equally clear. Promises must translate into predictable, accessible, and affordable support. We have heard repeated calls to substantially scale up grant-based and concessional finance, operationalize and adequately resource the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, and to make good on the commitments made in the Paris Agreement. SIDS, Small Island Developing States, and least developed countries must have access to finance if we are to truly support the most vulnerable among us. We have also heard the urgency in advancing debt relief and other innovative arrangements so that countries are not forced to choose between servicing debt, protecting lives, and investing in development. And on technology and capacity building, speakers have highlighted opportunities to accelerate the clean energy transition and to improve our ability to adopt, anticipate, and prepare for disasters through reimagining the early warning systems supported by emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence. Early warning saves lives. only when people can receive it, trust it, and act on it. Running through these discussions, one fact stood out: impacts of climate change are not felt equally. Running through countries in special situations, as well as vulnerable groups, including women and girls, indigenous people, and persons with disabilities, continue to bear disproportionate burden, despite having contributed the least to the crisis. Equity matters, and it must therefore shape how we mobilize resources, share technology, and measure success. Excellencies, as I said this morning, climate action is a test of credibility for our organization. And that credibility ultimately rests on whether we are able and willing to deliver on the promises we have made. With COP31 only a few days away, let us build on its presidency's emphasis on implementation, cooperation, and collective action. And let us connect national priorities with finance, technology and partnerships, and ensure that ambition delivers measurable results. Our actions ahead must translate commitments into action. We should put resources where needs are greatest, and we should equip those on the front lines not merely to survive disasters, but to anticipate risks, safeguard development gains, and thrive. This is how we restore trust through action that people can see, support they can access, and a future they can believe in. I thank you again for your participation. We had an excellent discussion on the various topics that will be covered by COP31. And I thank all of you for participating in this event in preparing for the event in Antalya. With this, the informal meeting of the plenary on a planet fit for the future, restoring trust through climate action is now concluded. This meeting is adjourned.