United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of the threat posed by rising sea levels to hundreds of millions of people living in low-lying coastal areas and small island states as new data reveals seas have risen rapidly since 1900.
In a stark address to the first UN Security Council debate on the implications of rising sea levels for international peace and security, Guterres said countries such as Bangladesh, China, India and the Netherlands were threatened as were big cities such as Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Jakarta, Lagos, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Maputo, New York and Shanghai.
“The danger is especially acute for nearly 900 million people who live in coastal zones at low elevations — that’s one out of 10 people on Earth,” he told the council on Tuesday.
Climate change is heating the planet and melting glaciers and ice sheets which, according to NASA, has resulted in Antarctica shedding some 150 billion tonnes of ice mass each year on average, Guterres…
2023-02-18 07:04:28
Article from www.aljazeera.com
The United Nations chief has warned that rising sea levels pose a ‘death sentence’ for some countries.
At the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York on Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres highlighted the direct threat of sea-level rising to nations, calling it a “direct existential threat”.
He added the phenomenon is already putting people’s lives at risk, particularly in coastal and small island states located in the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Right now, one metre sea level rise would affect more than 10 million people in Bangladesh,” Guterres said in his address to the summit.
He urged world leaders to adopt a “sense of urgency” when it comes to climate change. Guterres urged countries to commit to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
The only way to prevent a “catastrophic disruption” of the world’s climate, he said, was to keep global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100.
Guterres called on countries to take advantage of the “unprecedented” technological and financial resources available to them, and to act now to prevent the catastrophic consequences of climate change.
“The point of no return is no longer over the horizon. It is in sight and is hurtling towards us,” Guterres said.
“Time is running out, but it is not too late to act. We must show the courage and vision to take smart, strong and united action at this critical moment.”
The Secretary-General concluded his speech with a warning that rising seas pose a ‘death sentence’ to some countries. He called on world leaders to work together to prevent such a grim fate for vulnerable countries.