By Catherine Wilson
SYDNEY & NUKU’ALOFA, Aug 30 2024 – Three months ahead of the COP29 United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference, the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has called for an emergency response from the international community as new data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reveals a critical deterioration in the state of the climate.

Scientists have called for limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels to prevent overheating of the atmosphere and a damaging rise in sea levels. But, due to inaction on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there is an 80 percent chance that the 1.5 degree threshold will be breached within the next five years, reports the WMO. 

“This is a crazy situation: rising seas are a crisis entirely of humanity’s making. A crisis that will soon swell to an almost unimaginable scale with no lifeboat to take us back to safety,” the UN Secretary-General declared in Nuku’alofa, the capital of Tonga, a Polynesian nation of about 106,000 people located southeast of Fiji, on Monday. He has been on the ground in the Pacific Islands, witnessing firsthand how people’s lives are hanging in the balance as they suffer a relentless battering of climate extremes, such as cyclones, floods, rising seas and hotter temperatures.

“Today’s reports confirm that relative sea levels in the southwestern Pacific have risen even more than the global average, in some locations by more than double the global increase in the past 30 years,” Guterres said. “If we save the Pacific, we also save ourselves. The world must act and answer the SOS before it is too late.”

According to a newly released UN report, Surging Seas in a Warming World, the increase in the global mean sea level was 9.4 cm, but in the southwest Pacific it was more than 15 cm between 1993 and 2023. Expanding oceans, due to melting Arctic and Antarctic ice, are projected “to cause a large increase in the frequency and severity of episodic flooding in almost all locations in the Pacific Small Island Developing States in the coming decades.” Ninety percent of Pacific Islanders live within 5 kilometres of coastlines, leaving them highly exposed to encroaching seas. Climate change impacts pose a serious threat to human life, livelihoods and food security, and the implications for increasing poverty and loss and damage are ‘profound and far-reaching,’ the report claims.

For years, Pacific Island leaders have led the way in calling for world leaders and industrialized nations to take rigorous action to halt the increasing carbon dioxide emissions destroying earth’s atmosphere.  In Tonga, the Secretary-General joined many of them at the 53^rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ summit on the 26-27 August, including the summit’s host and Prime Minister of Tonga, Hon. Siaosi Sovaleni, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister, James Marape, Samoa’s leader, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa and Tuvalu’s PM, Feleti Teo.  And he took the opportunity to amplify their voices and their climate leadership. ‘Greenhouse gases are causing ocean heating, acidification and rising seas. But the Pacific Islands are showing the way to protect our climate, our planet and our ocean,’ he said.

The UN chief took time to listen to the voices of local communities and youth, gaining valuable insights into how the people of Tonga are responding to climate extremes and disasters.

In January 2022, a tsunami, triggered by the eruption of an undersea volcano known as Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, descended on Tonga. It reached the main island of Tongatapu and others, affecting 80 percent of the country’s population, destroying livestock and agricultural land and causing damage of more than USD 125 million. Guterres met with people in the coastal villages of Kanokupolu and Ha’atafu, which were devastated when the tsunami swept through and surveyed the ruins of beach resorts and coastal infrastructure while witnessing the resilience and determination of those who have rebuilt their homes and lives.

Two years ago, the UN also launched ‘Early Warnings for All’, a project aimed at installing early warning systems in every country by 2027 in order to save lives and prevent damage.

“With the increase in the intensity of tropical cyclones and flooding [in the Pacific], simple weather forecasting is not enough for people to prepare for these natural disasters,” Arti Pratap, an expert on tropical cyclones who lectures in Geospatial Science at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, told IPS. She said it was important to “focus on building the capacity of communities to make use of the information provided by national meteorological services in the Pacific on an hourly, daily and monthly basis for decision-making.”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres visits a house in Lalomanu that has been abandoned due to storm damage and flooding as a result of climate change during his trip to Samoa.
Credit: UN Photo/Kiara Worth

Many farmers, for instance, “tend to rely on readily available traditional knowledge on weather and climate and its interaction with the environment around them, which they are familiar with. However, traditional knowledge may not be sufficient in the background of global warming,” Pratap said.

The UN initiative involves the setting up of meteorological observation stations, ocean sensors and radars to better predict extreme weather and disaster events. According to the UN, providing 24 hours’ notice of an approaching disaster can reduce damage by 30 percent. As part of the project, Guterres launched a new weather radar at Tonga’s International Airport.

His week-long tour of the Pacific Islands, which also included time in Samoa, New Zealand and East Timor, was an opportune moment for Guterres to open conversations about the goals that will be on the table at COP29, to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 11-22 November.

The key priorities of this year’s climate summit will be, among others, limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and achieving broad agreement on the scale and provision of climate finance. ‘The one thing that is very clear in my presence here is to be able to say loud and clear from the Pacific Islands to the big emitters that it is totally unacceptable, with devastating impacts of climate change, to go on increasing emissions,’ Guterres declared in Nuku’alofa on August 26, 2024.

And, for many Pacific Islanders, gaining better access to climate finance is vital. The development organization, Pacific Community, reports that the region will require at least USD 2 billion per year to implement climate resilience and adaptation projects and transition to renewable energy. This far exceeds what the Pacific is currently receiving in climate finance, which is about USD 220 million per annum.

“Despite the commendable pledges from the United Nations and world leaders, such as the Paris Agreement, the existing global finance mechanisms still hinder community-based and youth organizations from accessing critical support,” Mahoney Mori, Chairman of the Pacific Youth Council, told local media during a meeting between the UN Chief and Pacific youth leaders in Tonga’s capital.

‘As a first step, all developed countries must honor their commitment to double adaptation finance to at least USD 40 billion per year by 2025,’ the UN Secretary General said on World Environment Day on June 24.

Tonga’s Prime Minister, Hu’akavemeiliku Siaosi Sovaleni, summed up the views of many in the Pacific as world attention focused on his island nation with the visit of the UN Secretary-General: “We need a lot more action than just words,’ he said at the Pacific leaders meeting. Referring to a minor earthquake that shook the islands as leaders converged on Tonga, he added, “We put on a show with the rain and a bit of flooding and also shook you guys up a little bit by that earthquake, just to wake you up to the reality of what we have to face here in the Pacific.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);  

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 30 2024 – Since June of this year, Chad has been facing an extended period of heavy rainfall. Major flooding has triggered the onset of a significant humanitarian crisis, as all aspects of Chadian life, including health, food production, and community, have been negatively impacted. Additionally, response plans are severely compromised due to high levels of hostility taking place in neighboring nations.

Major floods have resulted in at least 145 deaths as well as an overall disruption of life. Severe flooding resulted in thousands of people losing their homes and all of their belongings. The UN briefing held on August 28, 2024, detailed the significant physical toll that flooding has had on Chad.

“All of Chad’s 23 provinces are now affected by floods following heavy rains that started earlier in the summer, in June. According to local authorities, 145 people have lost their lives. More than 960,000 people have been impacted, with some 70,000 homes destroyed,” says Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General.

Additionally, it has been reported that certain regions have been more adversely affected than others, with some areas only accessible by canoe. Flooding has also led to the collapse of critical infrastructure, including bridges, roads, and buildings.

It is important to note that Chad’s economy is critically dependent on agriculture. Approximately 80 percent of the workforce is employed through jobs in farming and raising livestock, with crops accounting for about a quarter of the nation’s GDP.

Recent flooding has decimated arable land and made conditions for growing crops nearly impossible. This has led to Chad’s preexisting issues in food insecurity and famine to greatly worsen.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs (OCHA) states, “The floods also severely impacted agriculture, with more than 250,000 hectares flooded and 30,000 heads of livestock washed away. With Chad’s malnutrition rates at a nine-year high, this will only aggravate an already dire food security situation.”

OCHA adds that prior to the floods that started this summer, Chadian authorities had declared a “national food security and nutrition emergency.” This indicates that a significant percentage of the population faces a risk of starvation and malnutrition.

“More than 964,000 people or 166,000 households, are affected by these floods as of August 25, 2024. There are 145 people dead, more than 251,000 hectares of fields submerged, more than 70,000 houses destroyed, and 29,000 heads of cattle swept away,” OCHA says.

Additionally, the World Food Programme (WFP) projects that approximately 3.4 million people are projected to face acute food insecurity for the lean season, which is happening right now. 2024 boasts the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded for Chad, seeing a 240 percent increase since 2020.

In addition to widespread food insecurity, major flooding has raised concerns over the transmission of waterborne diseases.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) states, “Four provinces and seven districts have been affected by a hepatitis E epidemic, which has a particularly high mortality rate amongst pregnant women. As of 15 July, there have been a cumulative total of 3,296 cases. 10 deaths have been confirmed, of which five were pregnant women.”

Additionally, flooding has worsened access to clean drinking water, leading to an increase in the contraction of cholera and diarrhea. Furthermore, flooding is also linked to a decrease in hygiene, leading to increased cases of malaria, meningitis, and respiratory illnesses.

Heavy flooding has also caused a significant increase in displacement levels. Due to the floods destroying thousands of homes across the country, many families have been forced to take refuge in schools and displacement camps.

”An estimated 1,778,138 people have been forcibly displaced in Chad, with the country hosting 1,388,104 refugees,” states the UNFPA.

Floods in Chad have also greatly obstructed the delivery of humanitarian aid due to high water levels in towns and villages obstructing the use of aid trucks. Additionally, pre-existing instabilities in national security have been exacerbated as armed conflict to the east of Chad prevents humanitarian aid from accessing those in need.

The Sudanese Civil War has led to armed groups pushing millions of civilians out of Sudan. Sudanese authorities have impeded aid through the Adre border crossing, which is the most efficient path for aid trucks to take through to Chad.

Dujarric adds, “Response capacity is already severely strained in Chad by the ongoing crisis in the country’s east, where large numbers of Sudanese refugees have fled to escape conflict in neighboring Sudan.”.

Currently, the UNFPA is supporting 73 healthcare facilities and is delivering supplies to help expecting mothers and families in the region. The WFP is also distributing food and nutritional supplements to families that have been most affected by hunger. In addition, the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) is helping aid workers reach remote areas that were thought to be inaccessible due to flooding.

Furthermore, the UN has launched the 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan for Chad, which seeks USD 1.1 billion. However, it is only 35 percent funded as of the date of publication.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);  

By Dennis Francis and Robert Floyd
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 30 2024 – In 2009 the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 29 August the International Day Against Nuclear Tests. This date recalled the official closing of the Semipalatinsk nuclear weapons testing site in today’s Kazakhstan on 29 August 1991; that one site alone having seen 456 nuclear test explosions between 1949 and 1989.

Between 1954 and 1984 there was on average at least one nuclear weapons test somewhere in the world every week, most with a blast far exceeding the bombing of Hiroshima; nuclear weapons exploding in the air, on and under the ground and in the sea.

Radioactivity from these test explosions spread across the planet deep into the environment. It can still be traced and measured today, in elephant tusks, in the coral of the Great Barrier Reef and in the deepest ocean trenches.

Meanwhile nuclear weapons stockpiles have grown exponentially. By the early 1980s there were some 60,000 nuclear weapons, most far more powerful than the bombs used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Public indignation grew. By the 1960s it was agreed in principle that ending explosive nuclear tests would be a vital brake on developing nuclear weapons and thereby promote nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.

The preamble to the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968 talked boldly of achieving ‘the discontinuance of all test explosions of nuclear weapons for all time’. But then it took almost thirty more years and hundreds more nuclear test explosions before the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was agreed in 1996. This is one of the world’s landmark treaties. What a difference it has made.

Between 1945 and 1996 there were more than two thousand nuclear weapons tests. In the 28 years since 1996, there have been fewer than a dozen. In this century only six tests have been conducted, all by North Korea. The Treaty relies on a network of over 300 scientific monitoring facilities around the world that can quickly detect a nuclear test notably smaller than the Hiroshima explosion and pinpoint its location. No state anywhere on Earth can conduct a nuclear weapons test in secret.

The CTBT has near universal international support. 187 States have signed it and 178 have ratified it. With ten new ratifications since 2021, there is global momentum against renewed nuclear testing with enthusiasm among smaller states especially high. Despite these gains, current international uncertainty challenges the global norm against nuclear testing created by the CTBT.

What if we see renewed nuclear testing, or even the use of a nuclear weapon in a conflict? We would face a disastrous collapse in international trust and solidarity. A return to the days of unrestrained nuclear testing would leave no state safe, no community safe, no-one on Earth unaffected. There’s always plenty of talk about learning from mistakes. In this case let’s learn from successes.

The CTBT brings together the best of diplomacy with the very latest technology for an unambiguous common global good. It builds transparency and trust, just when transparency and trust look to be in dwindling supply. On the International Day against Nuclear Tests, the United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting will be convened.

On this occasion, we call on all states to be open to the bold but principled decisions needed to reach a final global consensus under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. To end nuclear testing once and for all. Enough is enough.

Ambassador Dennis Francis is the President of the UN General Assembly, at its seventy-eighth session; Dr Robert Floyd is the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);