The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Edited News , Press Conferences | WMO
Lack of progress to combat climate change hampers fight against poverty, hunger
Lack of progress to combat climate change hampers fight against poverty, hunger
The world is far from meeting its climate goals, seriously undermining efforts to tackle hunger, poverty and ill-health, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
Launching a new multi-agency report coordinated by the WMO, the UN agency also warned that insufficient progress towards climate goals is preventing better access to clean water and energy, and many other aspects of sustainable development.
“We are not going to meet climate targets and we are not going to meet the Sustainable Development Goal targets either at the current pace of action”, said Professor Petteri Taalas, WMO’s Secretary-General, at the UN in Geneva. “This was a demonstration of what has happened to the emissions in various parts of the world a year ago and from 2022 to 2023.”
The report, entitled “United in Science 2023” combines input and expertise from 18 UN organizations. It notes that at the midway point of the SDG 2030 Agenda, only 15 per cent of the goals have been achieved. When the SDG Agenda was launched in 2015 in New York, the aim was “a world of universal respect for human rights and human dignity, the rule of law, justice, equality and non-discrimination”.
According to Professor Taalas between 1970 and 2021, “we have seen 12,000 disasters related to weather and there have been two million people who have been killed in those disasters, mostly in less developed countries, 90 per cent in less developed countries. And there has been $4.3 trillion losses and 60 per cent of those have been taking place in less developed countries.”
The report underlines that science is central to find solutions to many of the current challenges the world faces.
“In the report we are demonstrating that with science and services, we can mitigate these negative impacts of climate change”, said the WMO chief. “At the moment, we have a major program called ‘Early Warning Services for All’. So what we aim is that in five years we would have 100 per cent coverage of proper early warning services, also in less developed countries in Africa and island states.”
The report shows how weather forecasting helps to boost food production and efforts to end hunger. Early warning-systems help to reduce poverty by giving people the change to prepare and limit the impact.
The need for science and solutions is more urgent than ever; 2023 has shown that climate change is here with record temperatures and extreme weather causing havoc around the globe.
“We have this record ocean heat this year, which is having impacts on ecosystems and fisheries, and it's also boosted by the acidification of the seawater since oceans serve as a sink of carbon dioxide,” said Professor Taalas.
Some future changes in climate are unavoidable, and potentially irreversible, but every fraction of a degree and every ton of CO2 matters if global warming is to be slowed and the SDGs achieved, says the report.
“The negative trend in weather patterns will anyhow continue until 2060,” said Professor Taalas. “There is no return back to last century's climate anymore and this glacier melting and sea level rise game we have already lost”. He added that “may be a problem for the coming thousands of years because of the very high concentration of carbon dioxide. So this is a growing issue we have just seen the first impacts, but these negative impacts are gradually growing until 2060.”
There is now a 98 per cent chance that one of the next five years will be the warmest on record, according to the WMO, and it quotes the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projection that long-term warming may reach the Paris level of 1.5C “in the early 2030s”.
However, WMO chief stressed that humankind is “not heading towards the end of the world. We are not heading towards the end of mankind, no biosphere, but we are talking about different scales of gray for the future. If we are able to reach the Paris limits of 1.5 to 2 degrees, then we could say that we will have a light gray future”.
The United in Science report was issued ahead of the SDG Summit and the Climate Action Summit which takes place at the UN General Assembly next week.
-ends-
STORY: Report launch: United in Science - WMO
DURATION (TRT): 3:00"
SOURCE: UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16/9
DATELINE: 14 September 2023, GENEVA SWITZERLAND
- Exterior medium shot: UN flag alley, UN Geneva
- Wide shot: speakers at podium and attendees at the press conference, screens with speaker
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Petteri Taalas, WMO’s Secretary-General : “We are not going to meet climate targets and we are not going to meet the Sustainable Development Goal targets either at the current pace of action. This was a demonstration of what has happened to the emissions in various parts of the world a year ago and from 2022 to 2023”.
- Medium shot: attendee at the press conference
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Petteri Taalas, WMO’s Secretary-General: “We have seen 12,000 disasters related to weather and there have been 2 million people who have been killed in those disasters, mostly in less developed countries, 90 per cent in less developed countries. And there has been $4.3 trillion losses and 60 per cent of those have been taking place in less developed countries.”
- Close up: journalist
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Petteri Taalas, WMO’s Secretary-General: “In the report we are demonstrating that with science and services, we can mitigate these negative impacts of climate change. At the moment, we have a major program called ‘Early Warning Services for All’. So what we aim is that in five years we would have hundred percent coverage of proper early warning services, also in less developed countries in Africa and island states.”
- Close up: journalist listening
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Petteri Taalas, WMO’s Secretary-General: “We have this record ocean heat this year, which is having impacts on ecosystems and fisheries, and it's also boosted by the acidification of the seawater since oceans serve as a sink of carbon dioxide”.
- Close up: journalist from behind in front of this laptop
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Petteri Taalas, WMO’s Secretary-General: “The negative trend in weather patterns will anyhow continue until 2060. There is no return back to last century's climate anymore and this glacier melting and sea level rise game we have already lost that. That may be a problem for the coming thousands of years because of the very high concentration of carbon dioxide. So this is a growing issue we have just seen the first impacts, but these negative impacts are gradually growing until 2060.”
- Wide shot, podium with speakers
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Petteri Taalas, WMO’s Secretary-General: “We are not heading towards the end of the world. We are not heading towards the end of mankind, no biosphere, but we are talking about different scales of gray for the future. If we are able to reach the Paris limits of 1.5 to 2 degrees, then we could say that we will have a light gray future”.
- Wide shot, speakers at the podium with journalists in the press room
- Medium shot, attendees
- Wide shot, camera people
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The appointment on Thursday of Karla Quintana as head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic is a key development after nearly a year and a half of work by the UN Human Rights Office supporting the institution’s launch.
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM , UNICEF , UNRWA , WHO
The head of the UN migration agency stressed on Friday that Syria is in no position to take back millions of Syrians following the fall of the Assad regime, while there is an urgent need to “re-evaluate” sanctions impacting the war-ravaged country.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | OHCHR , UNHCR , WHO , UNICEF , UNRWA , OHCHR
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid briefing, which was attended by the Director-General of the International Organization for Migration, representatives and spokespersons of the World Health Organization, the United Nations Human Rights, the United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the United Nations Refugee Agency, and the International Labour Organization.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | IOM
Amy Pope, IOM Director General, briefs the Geneva press corps on her recent mission to Syria.
1
1
1
Edited News | IIIM , UNHCR
Syria: ‘Key priority’ is to preserve evidence of crimes – UN investigators
In Syria, new access to evidence of horrific human rights violations means that accountability may be closer than ever – if only proof can be preserved, a top UN investigator said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | FAO , UNHCR , WHO , WOAH
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid briefing, which was attended by the Head of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism Investigating Serious Crimes in Syria, representatives and spokespersons of the United Nations Refugee Agency, the World Health Organization, the World Organization for Animal Health, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the World Meteorological Organization.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | IIIM
Robert Petit, Head of IIIM: opportunities and challenges for justice in Syria in the wake of current events.
1
1
1
Edited News | OSE , ICRC , UNHCR
Syria: UN and partners urge action to preserve evidence of prison atrocities, stabilize country
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria five days ago, hundreds of people have rushed to Saydnaya prison, desperate to find loved ones. Disturbing images from the prison and other detention centers have since surfaced, exposing the “unimaginable barbarity Syrians have endured for years,” said Jenifer Fenton, spokesperson for the UN special envoy for Syria, on Friday.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | OSE , UNHCR , ICRC , UNRWA , HRC , ILO , WHO
Rolando Gómez, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid briefing, which was attended by the representatives and spokespersons of the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the International Labour Organization, the World Health Organization, the Human Rights Council, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
1
1
2
Edited News | UNRWA
Gaza: “Sickening normalisation” of suffering, amid attacks on people and aid convoys
Ongoing military operations by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in Gaza continue to devastate Palestinian children and families, with mounting casualties and a critical lack of humanitarian aid for the desperate population.
“Local media reporting here that last night, 30 people were killed in this area in strikes” said a senior emergency officer with the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Louise Wateridge, speaking to reporters in Geneva from central Gaza.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | OHCHR
Rights experts call for end to impunity for Israel’s violations of international law
Four independent human rights experts have jointly called for the international community to sanction Israel’s conduct of hostilities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as well as in the wider Middle East region - including in Syria, Lebanon and Iran. They also called for the restoration of trust in the international justice system through the abandonment of “extreme interpretations” and “double standards” in the application of the universal norms regulating the conduct of war.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNHCR
Syria: needs continue to grow amid highly uncertain situation, say aid teams
The historic power shift in Syria and the still volatile situation two days after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime have increased humanitarian needs in a country where nearly 17 million people, including millions of internally displaced, already depended on humanitarian aid before the recent events, UN aid teams said on Tuesday.