Environmental issues and sustainable development

Peacekeepers, supporting flood response, have airlifted medical supplies from Agok airstrip in the southern part of Abyei to other parts of the region, to ensure medical stocks, and the Mission is doing weekly flights to multiple areas in Abyei helping to provide humanitarian assistance to communities that are cut off because of flooding.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message to the Virtual Launch of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report, today:

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) today released its annual Emissions Gap report. This year’s report says that nations must deliver dramatically stronger ambition and action in the next round of nationally determined contributions or the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal will be gone within a few years.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that an urgent request to access the Falouja area of Jabalya to help those trapped under the rubble was denied by Israeli authorities for the fourth consecutive day, and teams, in Gaza City, reported that shelter support is urgently needed.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message for the opening ceremony of the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16), in Cali, Colombia, today.

With only six years remaining to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the world is on track to achieve only 17 per cent of targets, requiring urgent action to correct that trajectory for developing countries, speakers warned the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today as it took up that crucial issue.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message for the Siena College Laudato Si’ Center for Ecology Global Climate Crisis Symposium, held in Albany, New York, today:

In Myanmar, amid an expanding conflict, an estimated 1 million people are also suffering from the impacts of deadly flooding. To bolster emergency relief efforts, the Acting Emergency Relief Coordinator, Joyce Msuya, allocated $4 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund at the end of September.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks to the opening of the Preparatory Meeting of the twenty-ninth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), in Baku, Azerbaijan, today:

The UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) and the UN country team there have intensified efforts to support communities following heavy rains that caused flooding. According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 18,000 people in Abyei have been impacted and displaced by the floods.