United Nations, 15 February (IANS) | UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the climate crisis is the root cause of rising seas and urged the international community to take more concrete action to reduce emissions and ensure climate justice.“Sea-level rise is not only a threat in itself. In a Security Council debate on “Sea-level rise: Implications for international peace and security”, Guterres said, Xinhua news agency reported, The danger-multiplier is.”
Rising seas threaten life, and threaten access to water, food and healthcare. He said salt water intrusion could destroy jobs in key industries like agriculture, fisheries and tourism and destroy the entire economy.
It could damage or destroy critical infrastructure, he said, and rising seas threaten the existence of some low-lying communities and even countries.
Citing data released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Guterres said the global average sea level has risen faster in the last 3,000 years since 1900 than in any previous century.
The WMO predicts that even if global warming is limited to 1.5°C, sea level rise will still be substantial, and that if temperatures rise by 2°C, this level rise could double, and And with the increase will be a rapid rise in sea level.
The consequences of the scenarios “are unimaginable,” Guterres said, warning that the world would see “a mass exodus of entire populations on a biblical scale” and “ever-intensifying competition for fresh water, land and other resources.”
He said the international community must counter this rising wave of insecurity with action to address the climate crisis, the root cause of rising seas, with more concerted action to reduce emissions and ensure climate justice.
The UN chief has said that developing countries must have the resources to adapt and build resilience against climate disaster, which means distributing loss and damage funds, making good on a $100 billion climate finance commitment for developing countries. Doubling down on adaptation finance and availing large scale private financing at affordable prices.
They stressed the need to broaden understanding of the root causes of insecurity by identifying and addressing a wider range of factors that undermine protection from environmental disasters such as poverty, discrimination and inequality, human rights violations, rising sea levels.
-IANS
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