Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Nepal & other topics - Daily Press Briefing

Alright, good afternoon. Sorry for the usual delay. We're having a bit of a e-mail breakdown today. So if you're sending me emails and I'm not responding to this time, it's not, I'm not ignoring you. We're just not getting them. Sorry, 2 seconds. All right, good afternoon. In a very short while, we will be joined by Naveed Hanif, who as you well know, is the Assistant Secretary General in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. as well as Stephen Hill, the Assistant Secretary-General in the Office of Legal Affairs. Both of them will be in person. And Bill Hare, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Climate Analytics, he is joining us virtually, and I think I can see him online already. They will be here to talk to you about the launch of the Secretary-General's sea level rise report. Also, programming note for tomorrow, 11:30 a.m., we will start with Lenise Collins who will brief you here for the last time in her capacity as spokesperson. Music's not a bad choice of music at least. Lenise Collins will be here to brief you for the last time in her capacity as spokesperson for the President of General Assembly. And she will be here also to introduce Melissa Summers, who will be the spokesperson for the incoming President of the General Assembly. I will be here at noon sharp or close to it. 30, Ambassador Jerome Bonner, full permanent representative of France, will be here in his capacity as president of the Security Council for the month of September. for the briefing by the President's Security Council, it will be in person only. So if you want to ask questions, you will have to be here in person. Our Secretary General is in Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan today ahead of the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, which will take place tomorrow during his visit. Excuse me. He's already held a number of bilateral meetings with leaders from the region. He met with the president of the Kyrgyz Republic, said there's a par of congratulating him on Kyrgyzstan's chairmanship of the SCO. They discussed the strong cooperation between the UN and the Kyrgyz Republic, including on climate change, environment and socioeconomic development, as well as peace and security in the context of Kyrgyzstan's upcoming membership of the Security Council starting in 2027. They also discussed various regional developments. He also had meetings with the president, with President Rahmon of Tajikistan and President Mirzoyev of Uzbekistan. Those readouts were shared with you. In the evening, he attended the official opening of the sixth World Nomad Games. He's already had a pull aside meeting with the president of Turkey, President Erdogan. And tomorrow we expect him to have more bilaterals. We'll share those with you as they happen. And tomorrow, of course, he will deliver remarks at the meeting of the SCO plus meeting. The Secretary General's remarks will focus on the importance of multilateral cooperation, the need for collective action to address today's global challenges. We'll share those remarks with you in due course and any other updates we may receive. Meanwhile, our Deputy Secretary-General is in Palau today representing the Secretary-General at the 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting, which is taking place today and tomorrow. During her visit, she will engage with Pacific leaders, regional stakeholders, and various members of the UN system to discuss Pacific Islands priorities, including sustainable development, climate change, and ocean protection. And also today, she participated in her own launch of the Secretary-General's sea level rise report alongside Peter Thomson, our special envoy on the ocean. From there, Ms. Palau will will travel to Italy and then where she will be in Rome to convene the fourth gathering of the artificial intelligence and human development report, excuse me, artificial and human development, which as you already know, is a global series of high level dialogues to examine how one of humanity's most transformative technologies is shaping human progress. She's also expected to meet with senior officials from the government of Italy, as well as the Holy See and heads of UN agencies based in Rome. Turning to Libya, I can tell you that the Secretary-General welcomes the signing in Libya yesterday of an agreement addressing the first two milestones of the UN support mission, Libya's political roadmap. Those milestones are reconstituting the board of the High National Election Commission and addressing contentious issues in the legal framework for presidential and parliamentary elections. The agreement marks an important step in advancing Libya towards national elections and ending the transitional period. The Secretary General calls on all relevant Libyan actors and institutions to engage in good faith to advance this agreement, which demonstrates that progress is possible through dialogue. And just in time, an update for you on Nepal and the response to the floods that are the ongoing response to the floods. Our humanitarian colleagues tell us that as of this morning, national authorities in Nepal have confirmed 903 people dead and over 267 injured, more than 1,200 people remain missing. Over 10,000 people have been rescued so far, and that includes 252 foreign nationals. The government of Nepal has more than 20,000 personnel deployed for search and rescue and has declared a flood emergency in 15 municipalities with two more designated at impact. Our resident coordinator in Nepal, Lila Pidas Yaya, continued to lead our support for the government-led response. Humanitarian agencies are now setting up a coordination hub in Nuwakot to strengthen planning and information sharing among partners on the ground. Access remains the biggest challenge. We are told that roads are usable only as far as and that some sections of the highway are now completely blocked. Power has been restored in two impacted districts, and work continues in Rasua, which was the hardest hit by the floods. As assessments of the situation continue, we're getting a clearer picture of what people need. Some 65,000 people require emergency water, sanitation, hygiene support, more than 22,000 children need protection, 2,600 children under five are expected to need treatment for severe wasting and around 10,500 pregnant and breastfeeding women need nutrition assistance. 19 schools have been damaged, nine of them completely destroyed. destroyed. Eight more are being used to shelter displaced families. More than 10,000 school-age children need psychosocial support. And preliminary reports indicate that 107 children may have been separated from their parents or caregivers. Family tracing and reunification is now an urgent priority. We and our partners are scaling up a response alongside the authorities. The World Food Programme has dispatched nearly 80 metric tons of food, reaching some 9,200 people with enough to cover their needs for 15 days. UNICEF has moved therapeutic food for about 500 severely malnourished children. 15 emergency medical teams have been mobilized, 11 of them working in the field right now. close to 400 people have received psychological first aid in Nuwakot, and more than 3,200 dignity kits have gone to women and girls. Turning to Ukraine, our humanitarian colleagues on the ground tell us that nearly 60 civilians were killed and 240 injured in attacks across the country over the weekend. That's what authorities are telling us. In Kiev was the hardest. The Kiev region, including the capital city, was the hardest hit with drone strike and an ammunition depot triggering a powerful explosion that killed 38 people, including residents of a care facility for older persons and injured 52 others, many of them children. Around 200 houses, as well as the care facility, were either destroyed or outright, outright destroyed or just damaged on the front lines in the Kherson region. Four people were killed, 60 others injured, and civilian casualties were also reported in Donetsk, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odessa, Sumy, and the Zaporizhzhia region. We join our humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, in reminding all parties that measures must be taken to protect civilians. Our humanitarian colleagues are responding following the attacks in the Kyiv region, WHO delivered medical supplies to hospitals treating the injured, while the Ukrainian Red Cross Society and several local NGOs with support from UN agencies provided mental health and psychosocial support, drinking water and cash assistance. We and our humanitarian partners continue to reach people affected by hostilities despite the ongoing access constraints. On Friday, OCHA facilitated a humanitarian convoy to the frontline community of Zvyatovsk in the Donetsk region. They delivered medical supplies, hygiene kits and other relief items to about 700 residents who remain in the area. Turning to Sudan, our humanitarian colleagues warn that violence continues to endanger civilians, force thousands more people from their homes across the country. In Blue Nile, local authorities report that nearly 22,000 people may have been displaced in the past seven days due to escalating fighting in the local locality of Gisan. Many are sheltering in schools or fled to other areas, including towards the state capital. In North Kordofan, attacks on Saturday on villages in northeast and northwest of the capital, El Obeid, reportedly caused casualties and displacement, with reports that civilian properties and livestock were looted. A day earlier, drone strike in the eastern part of the city also reportedly caused casualties. The International Organization for Migration reports that increased insecurity in North Kordofan yesterday displaced some 450 people. And in West Darfur state, civilians were reportedly killed and injured last Thursday, when a drone strike hit a fuel market in a town near the border with Chad. The attack also damaged civilian property. And in South Kordofan, renewed fighting around two towns in recent days. has also forced families to be displaced. Meanwhile, a humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Denise Brown, said today the detention of humanitarian personnel by non-state armed groups is unacceptable. In a statement, she warned that an increasing number of aid workers are being detained, endangering humanitarian personnel, disrupting critical humanitarian operations. She called for their immediate and unconditional release. We once again call on all parties to protect civilians civilian infrastructure, respect international humanitarian law, and allow humanitarian organizations to operate safely and independently. Turning to the occupied Palestinian territory, we continue to remain very concerned about the impact on civilians and because of the continued Israeli airstrikes and other military attacks over the weekend in Gaza. We're particularly concerned about reports that a young boy was among the fatalities and also one of the strikes damaged items at the Al-Aqsa Hospital compound in Dar al-Bala. Civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, of course, must always be protected. They should not be attacked or used for military purposes. Meanwhile, we in our humanitarian partners in Gaza continue preparing for the rainy season. Over the weekend, municipalities in Gaza informed our colleagues that they had mapped the needs related to flood risks in hundreds of localities across Gaza. However, humanitarian partners warned that efforts to support people ahead of the winter are hampered by insufficient funding, limits on the approval on volumes of items entering Gaza, and shortages of engine oil, spare parts, and heavy machinery, as we've been telling you repeatedly. Efforts are also constrained because of most of Gaza's land remains inaccessible, including areas that are less vulnerable to flooding and that could be used to set up tents. Turning to the West Bank, our colleagues on the ground say that is settler related violence continues over the weekend with incidents involving theft, arson, vandalism and attacks and confrontation in multiple areas resulting in in property damage and injuries. On Saturday, Israeli settlers stoned a house in Kusrah village, less than half a kilometer from where three families have been isolated following the establishment of a new settlement outpost a few weeks ago. Just outside of Ramallah, our colleagues have reported three consecutive days of attacks by Israeli settlers escorted by Israeli security forces. Here alone, attacks have injured a dozen Palestinians and sometimes prevented movement of people and vehicles, including ambulances, to both getting in and getting out. Heading north to Lebanon, our colleagues at the peacekeeping mission there continue to observe extensive IDF activity inside the country. In recent days, peacekeepers have recorded significant IDF artillery activity across the missions of our area of operations, across the Blue Line, and at sea, as well as troop deployments, engineering works, and position maintenance. Also, our UNIFIL colleagues reported unguarded ammunition stockpiles in Sector East, possibly originating from an IDF firing position. Peacekeepers also secured unexploited ordinances found in sector west before handing it over to a disposal team. Despite all of this, between Thursday and Sunday, UNIFIL facilitated nine humanitarian missions, eight in sector west and one in sector east. Separately, Jean Arnault, the special coordinator at interim for Lebanon, just completed his visit to New York. As you know, he briefed the council in close consultations. He also met with representatives of Lebanon, Israel, various members of Security Council and regional countries. In his interactions with member states, Mr. Aoun emphasized the major security and humanitarian economic challenges facing Lebanon, including the need to ensure substantial international presence in the southern Lebanon following the end of UNIFIL's mandate to help avoid a security vacuum. He's now back in Beirut where he'll continue to engage with Lebanese parties. He'll also continue to outreach to regional and international stakeholders in a position to contribute in particularly the strengthening of the Lebanese Armed Forces as a key actor in safeguarding Lebanon's internal stability, Lebanon's independence, and Lebanon's territorial integrity. A quick update on Ebola and from Rwanda, our humanitarian colleagues tell us that we and our partners continue to support the government led efforts to strengthen preparedness for Ebola. While no confirmed cases have been reported, Rwanda remains at risk due to the proximity to the affected areas in the DRC and continued cross-border movement of people. The World Health Organization is working with national authorities to strengthen information sharing and support facilities across the country. Risk communication, community engagement activities are ongoing in 11 high risk areas. More than 20,000 frontline personnel, over 10,000 community members have been reached with information on Ebola transmission, symptoms, prevention, treatment and the reporting of suspected cases. In July, emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher allocated $2 million from the Central Emergency response fund to help Ebola preparedness in Lebanon. And today we mark the International Day for People of African descent, observed this year under the themes expand the human rights of people of African descent. This year's discussion examined repertory justice through the return of cultural artifacts, the human rights situation of youth of African descent, and the 25th anniversary of the Durban Declaration program of action. In his message, the Secretary General says we recognize the contributions of the people of African descent across politics, government, science, the arts, culture, innovation, so much more. He also recalls the work still needs to be done towards ensuring the full enjoyment of human rights, equality and opportunity. As a reminder, there is a every September here, there's a high level week. Every September, we remind people people that there is an extra accreditation needed if you do not already have a UN accreditation. So for all of you who have colleagues coming in who are not accredited, today is the last day to register. Of course, if you have your existing UN pass, you don't need an extra pass. Lastly, we have a quiz for you today. Chris, are you ready? This country has the world's longest national anthem, taking around six minutes to sing. Come on. And in 2030, this country will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its first World Cup football win. Yes, Namo, very good. I know. That's right. We didn't start with Uruguay with the World Cup. Anybody know what the anthem is called? Orientales, La Patria, or La Tumba. So we thank our friends in Montevideo who sent us a check for $2,517,307 American dollars. And we appreciate each one of those. All right, speaking of appreciation, Edie, please.

The outcome. Is the United Nations preparing an appeal for Nepal to deal with the ongoing impact of this terrible disaster?

Yes, I have no doubt an appeal is being prepared. Obviously, before issuing an appeal, we need to have a full assessment and a needs assessment of what is actually needed, what we need the money for. So as soon as we have an update on that, I will share it with you.

And this weekend saw a revival of military action between the United States and Iran. does the Secretary, with impact on U.S. facilities in the region and in Iran itself, does the Secretary General have any comment on this revival of military action?

I mean, the resumption of exchange of fire between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran is very regrettable, to say the very least. We'd had about a month of relative calm. Again, Secretary General urges everyone maximum restraint. He encourages a return to diplomatic activity, to diplomatic talks that would lead to a settlement, to help restore stability and confidence in the region. And I'll leave it at that for now. Yes, Namo.

Thank you. On the meeting that the Secretary General had with President Erdogan of Turkey, did he raise the -- did he talk about the Kurdish peace process? And did he encourage him on, you know, finding a quick reaching bringing that to a quick solution. Thank you.

I don't have a full readout. I know it was not a formal meeting but a pull aside. Uh so being a little different. Just the two of them talking. As soon as I have some sort of readout I will share it with you. Uh I know that we we are principle position on the Kurdish peace process is as we said is very we're supporting it and encouraging its full implementation. Kirsten welcome back.

Thanks, Steph. Yes, I'm wondering if the Secretary General is aware of the proposed or the visa restrictions that are due to go into effect on September 15th that will impact international journalists. Is he aware of this? Is he concerned that this could impact coverage? not only of the United States, but of the United Nations, given it limits journalists to 240 days and many journalist organizations are very concerned about the impact that this will have on journalists.

Look, of course, countries are have the right to decide on visa policies. But we would hope that we see here in our host country a policy that allows for the maximum amount of international journalists to cover and including to cover the UN. Yes.

Thank you, Steph. There is lots of misinformation following the Nepal-China flooding, particularly in the Chinese language media. For example, the BBC said that China censored the footage of the Chinese port, border port being devoured in a matter of seconds. interpretation is that China is trying to, China is concerned about instability in Tibet and also, for example, Reuters said that China failed to provide early warning to Nepal, but the fact is that the glacier break that led to the flooding happened in Nepal What does the Secretary-General have to say on this rampant misinformation?

We're not in a position to fact-check the work of journalists worldwide. What I can tell you is that, especially in disaster settings, the flow of accurate information is paramount. Yes, please.

Thank you. And Italian media yesterday mentioned the chance that the Italian Premier, Giorgia Meloni, won't take part into the General Assembly. Do you know anything about this? And does the Secretary General have any comment on that?

No, we haven't gotten confirmation from all delegations as to who will be the head of the delegation. We of course understand that each member state, each head of government or head of state has different scheduling priorities. We always hope for the highest possible representation during each General Assembly, but I don't have any specific confirmation on the Italian side.

Is there like a deadline for?

No, there's no, it's unlike accreditation for media, heads of states and heads of government are able to show up and get a ticket at the door, so to speak. Thank you. All right. Any questions online? Okay. I'll ask you to be patient for two seconds while we're joined by our guests who hopefully are in the back. Please, you guys take your, yeah, don't, Steven, please don't take, bring down the flag. It's not a good career move. All right. Wonderful. We're delighted to be joined by our friends, Navid Hanif, who, as you know, is the Assistant Secretary General in Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and Stephen Hill, Assistant Secretary General in the Office of the Legal Counsel, and also online, Bill Hare, Chief Executive Officer of Climate Analytics. They're here to brief you on the launch of the sea level rise report. So I don't know which one of you is going to take the floor first. Navid, please.

Thank you, Stefan, and thank you, members of the media joining us for this launch. As Stefan mentioned, we will cover different aspects of the report. But first, let me convey our deep sympathy and our support to the people and governments of Nepal and China following the loss of lives and widespread destruction caused by severe flooding last week. We are here to launch a seminal report which is prepared by the United Nations on challenges related to sea level rise and ways and approaches to address them. I just want to share with you five messages, brief ones. First, sea levels are rising and rising faster, driven by human-induced climate change, exceptional ocean warming, because 91% of the heat is absorbed by oceans and melting glaciers. Global sea level rose by 4.7 millimeters a year between 2014 and 2023, but in 2024, it reached a record of 5.9 millimeters. And it's not a future risk anymore. It's present and accelerating. Second, This is not just an environmental challenge, it's a development emergency. Nearly one in ten people worldwide already live in several coastal areas less than five meters above the high tide line. Rising sea threatens homes, livelihoods, ports, transport, energy, water systems, and public finances. The economic costs are already enormous. Coastal infrastructure damage has exceeded $1.8 trillion. Small island developing states suffered an estimated $153 billion in climate-related losses between 1970 and 2020. So the development gains are at risk. Third message is we cannot stop sea level rise this century. But we can determine how much worse it becomes. Because about half a meter, 0.5 meter of sea level rise is already locked in, in this century because of warming that has already occurred. But beyond that, our choices enormously matter. Keeping global warming as close as possible to 1.5 degrees remains critical. So what should we do about it? First, adaptation is urgent, but unfortunately it is seriously underfunded. Countries need better sea level monitoring, stronger data, science, early warning systems. Developing countries alone need $310 to $365 billion a year for adaptation. and they are getting last year, but in 2023, $26 billion. So there's a gap of almost 10 times from what they need. The adaptation gap is not a knowledge gap, it's a financing gap. And we must remember adaptation is not the only way to address it. Resilience is also critical. And that brings me to my final point, and that is We must move from reacting to anticipating. And report calls for stronger science and data, integrated planning, greater investment in resilience, action on displacement and loss. Actually, people are already being displaced in Fiji, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. We need to stop asking only what happens after the next flood. The objective must be to reduce the avoidable, not simply respond to the inevitable. And that is the core message of this report. The sea level is rising, our resilience, our financing, and our ambition must rise faster. I just want to flag for you, during this 81st session, there is going to be a political declaration on sea level rise. that will be adopted here, and it reflects a shared commitment by member states to translate science into action. And we are hoping this will be a big push to this question that it is whether our preparedness will rise fast enough to save these people who are at very high risk. Thank you. Over to you, Steve.

Thank you so much. And it's great to be here with everyone today. Thank you very much for setting the scene for us. I'm here from the UN Office of Legal Affairs to talk about the important international law section of this report. And I think it's a compliment to the the discussion of the serious impacts of sea level rise that we've already heard. So how is international law relevant here? I think that it provides another way of framing the problems, but also tools potentially for addressing them. So I mean, maybe in terms of framing, as seas rise, states are facing the possibility of substantial loss of territory. We've already heard about the 0.5 meter that's already locked in and in some cases even complete submergence, right? In terms of other areas of international law, states also measure their maritime zones from the coastline, yet the coastlines are moving. So what does this mean for states and also for the people who are affected? I think this report from a legal perspective is quite interesting because it hits on three key areas. The first one is the report is quite clear that there is a presumption of continued statehood for countries that are facing land territory changes due to sea level rise. So even countries that might become submerged at some point. This is essential because the loss of the physical territory could raise questions about nationality. We need to avoid the loss of nationality. That's clearly pointed out in the report. And we need to enable peoples to exercise their right to self-determination. So that's one area. A second kind of area of international law in this report is the need to maintain the established maritime zones in the face of the physical change that sea level rise brings. So those zones, as I mentioned, are measured from the coastline, the waterline. If the waterline changes, what are the legal implications of that? This report really places an emphasis on the maintenance of the zones and legal certainty. And then the third legal issue has to do with the protection of persons who are affected by sea level rise, displacement, loss of home and livelihood. and the enjoyment of their fundamental human rights. So this report calls for legal solutions, policy measures, as well as more international cooperation to address the protection of persons. And that's an important human rights question as well. So as I mentioned, the idea here is that Despite the changes that can be brought about by this phenomenon, that are changes that are very disturbing and are really some of the core challenges of our time, the values of legal stability, predictability, legal certainty should be at the core of what the international community does, not only because it's fundamentally important for the states involved, but also for the people involved, not only now, but well into the future. Maybe I'll just end by highlighting an important area which has to do with capacity building, technical assistance to help advance legal clarity, to help strengthen governance. Here in the Office of Legal Affairs, we work on helping states deposit their baselines, deposit their outer limits of their maritime zones and boundaries. in line with the Convention on the Law of the Sea. So that's one example of how the UN is really, practically speaking, advising states in dealing with some of the implications of these phenomenon. We are, of course, happy to help all of our colleagues across the UN as they continue to work to address this serious problem. Thank you very much.

Thank you. We'll now go to Bill Hare. Thank you for your patience, Mr. Hare, if you want to say a few words and also tell us where you're joining us from.

Thank you. Hello everyone. I'm joining you actually from Perth, Western Australia, where I'm actually on my way to the Least Developed Country Ministerial Meeting in East Timor starting in a day or so. Now I've got a few slides. Being a scientist, I couldn't help it. So I think Esther's gonna put them up there. I've got a message I'm gonna go through in about four minutes or so. Esther, I'm hoping you can get my slides up. Yeah, so the first message, I think, from the science is that sea level rise is accelerating. This is very clear, and it's caused by global warming. Second slide shows you that sea level rise is really accelerating towards over 60 centimetres sea level rise by 2100. These numbers are in the Secretary General's report. But this shows that there's a very serious challenge. We cannot really slow this down very much, even with a lot of mitigation. I'm going to go into the opportunities for that in a minute. The next slide shows why this is happening. Why is sea level rise accelerating? And it's because our current policy situation globally, this is a picture from the Global Action Tracker, countries current policies adding sufficient emissions to warm the world towards 2.6 degrees of warming by 2100. And that's driving around 60 centimeters of sea level rise. So if we go to the next slide, hopefully the next substandard slide, we are also seeing a really big increase in observed impacts. I'm just gonna give you a couple of examples, but human-driven emissions, that is, we've attributed, the scientific community's attributed emissions to the increased frequency, the quadrupling of the frequency of extreme sea level events over the last century. Coastal flooding has happened much more often and leading to an increase, rapidly increase in adaptation expenditure. The next slide also relates to the issue of migration and displacement. Since about 1992, Human settlements have been observed moving quite quickly away from the majority of the world's coastlines, subnational regions, and so on. This is a relatively new phenomenon, and it's driven also by global warming. Countries most affected include the small island developing states, many least developed countries, where I'm going to that strategy meeting in East Timor in a day or so. The losses of forced migration go beyond the human and economic cost to culture, values, tradition, and the legal jeopardy is just referred to. If we can go to the next substantive slide. Great. The impacts in the Pacific are really quite serious. I'm raising the Pacific now because Pacific Island Forum is on in Palau now, and this report is officially released there today. and I've worked a lot in the Pacific. Regional sea level rise in the Pacific is higher than the global average for reasons I won't go into, but this exacerbates the country's vulnerability in that region. An example would be for an atoll island like Tuvalu, projections indicate the current policy emissions could see up to 72 centimeters of sea level rise by 2100 compared to about 60 globally. The only way we can limit this is through mitigation, that is through reducing emissions sufficiently to slow sea level rise. And I'm just turning towards the urgency of action on slide 11. The importance of the Paris Agreement's 1.5 degree limit has been alluded to in comments from my colleagues earlier. But it's emerging from the scientific community that limiting warming close to 1.5 degrees, the limit in the Paris Agreement, won't actually stop sea level rise. Sea level rise will continue accelerating, looking towards several meters of sea level rise over the next two centuries. The only way we can actually avoid this outcome is by peaking warming as close as possible to 1.5 degrees, getting it back below 1.5 degrees by 2100. In other words, very urgent emission reductions are needed in the next decades. Now it turns out that despite the terrible situation in on emissions, there's a lot we can do. If you go to the next, I think, and last substantive slide, recent work that we've done, which is consistent with other published emission pathways show that we can actually peak warming close to about 1.7 degrees. Originally when the Paris Agreement was adopted, this would have been about 1.5 degrees, but the inaction of the last decade or so has meant that we can't do that anymore. But the blue curve here shows the peaking of the temperature that could be caused if we reduce emissions fast enough, essentially net zero CO2 emissions by mid-century, very fast transition away from fossil fuels. I'm afraid it's emissions pathways like this that are needed, a rapid phase out of fossil fuel, a rapid reduction in greenhouse gases is the only way we're going to actually slow the rate of sea level rise and ultimately limit to a meter or less. If we continue on the present pathway, we're looking at multiple meters of sea level rise over the next few centuries and the loss of very large areas of coastline and the populations that go with them. Thank you, back to you.

Thank you very much and thank you for staying up so late for us. We'll go straight to questions, Edie.

Thank you very much on behalf of the United Nations correspondents. Association for doing this briefing. My name is Edith Lederer from the Associated Press. I think I have a follow up question for everybody. Assistant Secretary General Hanif, you talked about serious underfunding. What are you talking about in terms of dollar amounts and what could that amount of money actually do to mitigate sea level rises? And Mr. Hill, on the law issue, I assume that you were talking about the prospect of, or the possibility of one of the Pacific Islands becoming submerged. if those people were forced to move to another island or another country, what would happen to their nationality and the nationality of their children? And Dr. Herr, on the issue of trying to mitigate sea level rise, you sound very pessimistic. Is there really any possibility of stopping this inevitable increase in the next 20, 30, 40 years? Thank you.

Thank you. We'll take him in order they were sent out. So Navid, please.

We cannot separate the issue of sea level rise from climate change because that is a major cause of melting of glaciers and the heat this oceans have to absorb. So I'm talking about adaptation first and then mitigation. Mitigation also means doubling renewables, eventually phasing out fossil fuels and energy efficiency. All of these measures are extremely important if we want to avoid, I think on 1.5 degrees centigrade we're already there, if we want to avoid the 2.6 degrees centigrade scenario, which is a catastrophe for all of us. On the numbers, for adaptation only, developing countries need 310 to $365 billion a year. And as of now, we're getting only $26 billion in adaptation. on climate finance itself, which includes mitigation in a massive way. And I want to acknowledge the work that multilateral developments have done and the global climate green fund is doing, but they are way below what we need in terms of investment. And then let's not forget loss and damages. It's also a big chunk which is required by developing countries to deal with the the ravages of climate change and you have seen what is happening. I'm not saying it's exclusively because of that, the destruction in Nepal and we are seeing in many other parts of the world. Climate change is contributing to this. So in terms of investment, billions of dollars on for adaptation, billions of dollars on climate change and the figures we have floated many times. The gap is actually increasing, not shrinking. So what are the ideas in this recommendation that we have made in the report? There are 18 recommendations. The Department of Economic and Social Affairs has done some analysis, of course, with the UN system. The development banks and governments need to, first of all, change regulations, deploy instruments on innovative investment instruments, which includes catastrophe bonds, and other bonds which will generate investments in these areas. Third, guarantees to private sector. So the investment moves in areas, especially in infrastructure and energy infrastructure, it is badly needed. So regulatory measures guarantees public finance to support private finance moving in in a massive way. And also development finance is shrinking. We need to think of globalizing other sources of finance. And small, but it has great potential is philanthropy. We need to bring them in to move private capital. Thank you.

The issue of the submersions, thank you for your question. You know, it can affect many places in the world and many regions. And it's not just the complete submergence, but it could be the territory made inhabitable or otherwise by sea level rise. And so that's why I think the report's so important because it really, it's provides a strong support for the idea that regardless of what happens to the physical territory, the statehood continues. And that is the principle from which then flows exactly your question about nationality because that's they they comes from there. And so why is it important to say that there's this presumption in favor of the continuity of statehood? It's well, it's not just because of the state itself, it's because of the people and and not only the the people themselves who, you know, would have to, as you say, move or go somewhere else, but also future generations. So I'm glad that the report focuses on that. It's a it's a huge issue. The report also talks about exactly the mechanisms of mobility, displacement, all the kind of frameworks that come into play when people have to move. But I think the idea is clear. People shouldn't lose their nationality. They shouldn't lose that element of their identity because of this phenomenon.

Thank you. Mr. Hair.

Yeah, thanks for the question. Look, the sea level rise issue is a diabolical one. It's irreversible. The scientific community's known that for a long time. So that means that even if we can get onto one and a half degree pathway, which we have to do for all the reasons that have been mentioned, we'll still have 40, 45 centimetres of sea level rise this century. The real benefit of the action that will be undertaken in the next decades to get onto one and a half degree, a Paris aligned pathway, occurs in the centuries following. So if we end up with two and a half degrees warming this century, then it's very likely we would have crossed tipping points for the West Antarctic ice sheet, parts of the East Antarctic even, maybe even Greenland that would lead to many meters of sea level rise in the next few centuries. By tipping point, I mean we would have crossed a point of warming and changes in these ice sheets that could no longer be reversed no matter how much we cool the planet. So the real benefit of action now is to save maybe 10, 20 centimeters of sea level rise this century, but many meters in the long term, which would mean, if that happens, that would mean the extinction of many small island states, but also drastic, catastrophic reshaping of coastlines around the world affecting many hundreds of millions of people.

Thank you. Namo.

Thank you so much for this briefing. This is Namo Abdullah with Rudaw. I have just one question for you, sir, about the legality. You mentioned something very interesting. You said, regardless of what happens to the physical territory, the statehood continues. Are you saying a state with no land can still be a state? And if the answer is yes, doesn't that mean the century old definition of territorial nation states is dead, but we haven't admitted it yet? Thank you.

It's a great question. No, thank you so much. I mean, this issue was really taken up, in fact, by the International Court of Justice, which itself, as you say, there's some traditional definitions of statehood. And let me just quote the International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion, which was actually requested by the General Assembly. It said, and I quote, "Once a state is established, the disappearance of one of its constituent elements would not necessarily entail the loss of its statehood." And then the report that we've been talking about today goes on and talks a little bit like I was saying to Edie about the practical elements of it. So I think from that, I wouldn't necessarily conclude that the international law about statehood is dead. What I would conclude is actually that it's very vibrant in the fact that the international law that we talk about the elements of statehood, it's actually capable of addressing problems, problems that are either, you know, unfortunately have been thrust upon us. So yeah, but I think this, I appreciate your question, thank you very much.

Thank you, Dulce.

I just wanted to ask you which countries in the Pacific are sinking the fastest and why? Is it because they're already the lowest lying countries or just because of where they're situated in the Pacific? Thanks.

Thank you. The report names Fiji, Vanuatu and Solomon. They're already displacement happening. And my colleague mentioned the sea level rise in the Pacific is much faster than the rest of the world. So these are the two factors which are contributing to-- but let's not forget, it's not just small island developing states. Even major coastal cities, and the report mentions those, Mumbai, Kolkata, Dhaka, even Miami, they are all at risk. Even in the three cities I mentioned, South Asia, 14 million people will be displaced the way they are losing their coastline. So it's a challenge, but coastal cities are also very vulnerable. Guangzhou in China is also vulnerable. So we need to look at the picture for all parts of the world, especially coastal. But again, development challenge is not just coastal. That's what the report says, please treat sea level rise as a systemic threat. your health, food security, your human rights, culture. You lose your ancestral land, you lose your identity. So that's why this issue requires a very comprehensive approach by governments to make it a part of their planning process.

You want to add something on the Pacific Islands?

Well, I could just add something a bit. Look, I think specifically about the Pacific Islands, it's the atoll islands that are most vulnerable. Palau, for example, is an atoll island, Tuvalu, Fiji, not Fiji, Kiribati. These are the ones that are most likely to suffer at the least non-habitability by mid-century unless we can slow our sea levels down. The The threat to human development will happen long before countries or regions are inundated. Because sea level rise, my colleague just pointed out, is a systemic risk to development. So once you start to get disasters happening, super El Nino is coming along, maybe add 25 centimeters of sea level rise surge for a few years. the will to stay in places begins to decline. People want to start leaving because they're suffering food, they're suffering disease, they're suffering loss of infrastructure. So these challenges are going to happen a lot faster than simply the physical inundation of land. And that's one of the reasons why the recommendations in the Secretary Jones report are so important. There's quite a lot of them. I think there's 18 or so. They're all very important. They're interlinked. and why they need to be coupled together and why countries need to move both on adaptation, both on loss and damage, and also on mitigation, reducing emissions simultaneously. There's not an option of doing one or the other. All of these tracks need to be moved forward at the same rate.

Thank you. Thank you very much for the briefing. My name is Muna Outoul. I'm with Al-Quds Al-Arabi. My question is for you, Mr. Hill, building on Ms. Eddie's question and Namos. I'm wondering if we can just please get more clarity on the macro level if countries eventually lose their land or become submerged. Does losing physical territory mean a country could lose its status under international law? And second question, does this ongoing legal work inform the discussions ahead of COP31? And thank you so much.

Thanks so much for your question and for building on the other questions. Yeah, well, that's exactly what the report is trying to, you know, cast a light on. And I think that that is also gonna be an element of the high level event that will happen in September, really focusing on this idea that there should be what they call the presumption of continuity of statehood. And because that has so many secondary effects, right? You're talking about would a state lose its status? I mean, we were before with Edie talking about the nationality of the people. I mean, there's so many implications of that. So that to me is the important part from a macro perspective of not only the Secretary General's report, but also all of the different considerations of this by the International Court of Justice, by the International Law Commission, and I suspect it'll be discussed by states in the high level event. I also think that that's underpinning, you know, all the work that's going on in the international community, including things like COP31. So, you know, stay tuned for September, I would say, have a look at the language that the states have agreed. And, you know, I think people should keep on thinking about these issues because they're very important. Thank you.

Thank you. The last question will be online from Iftekhar Ali. Iftekhar, go ahead.

Thank you, Steph. My question is for Mr. Hanif. Sir, how much, I mean, roughly, by percentage, is the rapid melting of glaciers is contributing to the rise of sea levels?

Thank you. I think this is a question which I'm not in a position to answer. I think my colleague in the Pacific may be better placed, but I just want to mention, look at the scenario, again, let me also be very clear, these are all scenarios. We do not know how eventually things will unfold, but just look at South Asia, glaciers and maybe, I think you know, it's considered as the third pole in the world. We have North Pole, South Pole and South Asia because of The concentration of glaciers is the third pole in the world. The scenarios indicate, and I hope they don't come to be true, South Asia in the next 15 to 20 years is flooding, glaciers are melting, and then drought, water will disappear, crops, food security, growing population, they have massive risks coming their way. So I don't have the specific answer, but Mr. Eftekhari, we can find out and come back to you. But glaciers are melting at a much faster speed than we anticipated. And the scenarios indicate even more serious changes coming their way in South Asia. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Mr. Hare, thank you for participating. Navid, Stephen, thank you. And as a reminder, there will be a meeting during the high-level week focused on sea level rise. Thank you very much.

Thank you.