With global sea level rising faster than at any time over the last 3,000 years, UN Member States met on Wednesday to examine how to best address this existential threat.
The situation is critical, said UN General Assembly President Philémon Yang, who convened the high-level meeting which included a plenary session and panel discussions.
He noted that estimates indicate up to 1.2 billion people could be forcibly displaced.
“For those on the front lines, the impacts of rising seas threaten livelihoods, inflict damage to settlements and critical infrastructure, and can in its most dramatic manifestations force the displacement of entire island populations and coastal communities,” he said.
Yang urged countries to work together to build resilience, tackle disaster vulnerability, ensure development and implementation of climate adaptation strategies, and improve coastal management practices.
“Above all, we must stop the global warming that is fuelling sea level rise by recommitting to our goal of limiting temperature rise to no more than 1.5 degrees,” he said.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres stressed the need for “drastic action” – both to reduce emissions to limit sea-level rise and to save lives.
He said everyone, everywhere must be protected by early warning systems by 2027, in line with a UN initiative.
Meanwhile, countries must deliver new climate action plans that align with the 1.5°C goal, cover all sectors of the economy, and provide a fast track to phasing out fossil fuels. G20 nations – responsible for roughly 80 per cent of global emissions – must take the lead.
“Money is indispensable. We need a strong finance outcome at COP29 this year – including on new and innovative sources of capital,” he said, referring to the UN climate change conference in Azerbaijan in November.
The Secretary-General also called for significant contributions to the new Loss and Damage Fund that assists developing nations, and for richer countries to double adaptation finance to at least US$40 billion annually by 2025.
Furthermore, Multilateral Development Banks must be reformed to deliver more affordable finance to developing countries.
Former General Assembly President Dennis Francis commended UN Member States for taking decisive action on the issue of sea-level rise. He said the meeting marks the starting point towards “an ambitious declaration” by the General Assembly in September 2026.
“The declaration is an opportunity to secure prosperity, dignity and rights of all affected countries and communities,” he continued. “Through the declaration, we must reaffirm that sovereignty and statehood are inalienable rights, and they are enduring and permanent, notwithstanding any circumstances of sea level rise.”
Francis called for greater support for climate adaptation in the most vulnerable communities as “climate financing is not sufficiently reaching the local level and should not saddle countries suffering from repeat disasters with more and more debt.”
Sea-level rise poses an existential threat to the economies, culture, heritage and land of small island developing countries, said the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Feleti Teo. Many will lose considerable territory, running the risk of becoming largely inhabitable.
He spoke of impacts such as saltwater permeating aquifers that provide drinking water, and higher tides and intensifying storms that devastate villages and fields. Additionally, flooding increases soil salinity, thus reducing crop yields and weakening trees.
“Our people will be unable to exist on the islands and shore they have called home for generations. Livelihoods are destroyed, families gradually move, community cohesion is tested, heritage is lost, and eventually the very fabric of our nations become increasingly threatened,” Teo said.
“For many of us, these are the hard realities we experience today, not the projections of a coming future,” said Teo.
The European Union (EU) Climate Action Commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, focused on the two “truly crucial elements” of mitigation and building resilience through adaptation.
Regarding mitigation, he said “there is no time to bury our heads in the sand a moment longer” and it is essential that countries keep working towards the goal of net-zero emissions.
Hoekstra said the EU will uphold the commitment to reach climate neutrality by 2050. The objective is part of its climate law “and we are well on our way to implementing the policies needed to achieve that transition in a way that is both fair and just and enables clean economic growth.”
He stressed, however, that curbing emissions “will not be enough” in the face of rising climate risks, hence the need to step up resilience.
The Commissioner also assured vulnerable communities that “the EU is with you in this struggle”. He said the bloc “will continue to fight for greater ambition on mitigation, and to support as much as we can with adaptation and the measures that we have to take in the domain of loss and damage.”
