APIA, Samoa: UN chief Antonio Guterres warned Thursday that some Pacific territories face “annihilation” from climate-induced cyclones, ocean heatwaves and rising sea levels.
On a visit to Samoa, he said the fate of Pacific islands depended on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Nearly 200 nations agreed to strive for that target in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, but UN estimates indicate that the world is not on track to achieve it.
“High and rising sea levels pose an enormous threat to Samoa, to the Pacific and to other small island developing states, and these challenges demand resolute international action,” Guterres said.
The Pacific region contributes just 0.02 percent of global carbon emissions, he noted.
“Yet you are on the front lines of the climate crisis, dealing with extreme weather events from raging tropical cyclones to record ocean heatwaves,” the UN secretary-general continued.
“Sea levels are rising even faster than the global average, posing an existential threat to millions of Pacific Islanders,” he added.
“People are suffering. Economies are being shattered. And entire territories face annihilation.”
Guterres urged richer nations to live up to their commitments to help pay for the consequences of climate change in developing countries.
He also called for international action to tackle the impact of climate change, overfishing and plastic pollution on the Pacific Ocean.
Guterres said major powers’ interest in the region was rising, an allusion to the jostling for power and influence in the Pacific between China and the United States and its allies.
“The Pacific is best managed by Pacific islanders,” the UN chief said. “It must never become a forum for geostrategic competition.”
UN chief says Pacific territories face climate ‘annihilation’
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UN chief says Pacific territories face climate ‘annihilation’
- UN chief: Fate of Pacific islands depended on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels
- The Pacific region contributes just 0.02 percent of global carbon emissions
UN chief calls on Israel to reverse NGOs ban in Gaza
- In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out
- Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Friday for Israel to end a ban on humanitarian agencies that provided aid in Gaza, saying he was “deeply concerned” at the development.
Guterres “calls for this measure to be reversed, stressing that international non-governmental organizations are indispensable to life-saving humanitarian work and that the suspension risks undermining the fragile progress made during the ceasefire,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians,” he added.
Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials.
The ban includes Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has 1,200 staff members in the Palestinian territories — the majority of whom are in Gaza.
NGOs included in the ban have been ordered to cease their operations by March 1.
Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
On Thursday, 18 Israel-based left-wing NGOs denounced the decision to ban their international peers, saying “the new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, following a deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data, leaving infrastructure decimated.
About 1.5 million of Gaza’s more than two million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
