HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY FLORENCIA SOTO NIÑO,
ASSOCIATE SPOKESWOMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
MONDAY, 01 NOVEMBER 2021
SECRETARY-GENERAL/COP26
Today in Glasgow, Scotland, the Secretary-General delivered the keynote address at the COP26 World Leaders Summit.
Mr. Guterres gave a blunt assessment of the status of our efforts to combat climate change as we face the hottest years on record. The world’s addiction to fossil fuels is pushing us to the brink and it is time to stop it before it stops us, he said.
Recent climate action announcements might give the impression that we are on track to turn things around. This is an illusion, the Secretary-General warned.
The Secretary-General also identified three areas of action. First, keeping the goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius alive. He called on delegates – from all countries – to show maximum ambition, in terms of mitigation and immediate concrete action to reduce emissions by 45% by 2030.
Second, he told COP attendees to do more to protect vulnerable communities from the clear and present danger. All donors must allocate half of their climate finance to adaptation, he stressed.
Third, the Conference, must be a moment of solidarity by making the $100 billion commitment a reality. The Secretary-General implored the leaders to choose ambition, to choose solidarity and to choose to safeguard our future and save humanity.
Also today, the Secretary-General held two bilateral meetings. He met with the head of Kuwait’s delegation to the COP, Prime Minister HE Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah, and he discussed Kuwait’s Nationally Determined Contribution and welcomed Kuwait’s efforts to increase renewable energy and nature-based solutions to address climate action.
The Secretary-General also met with the Special Envoy for Climate of China, Mr. Xie Zenhua. They had a prolonged exchange on how to organize and provide coalition-based support to help emerging economies accelerate decarbonization as well as on how to phase out coal.
The Secretary-General also joined a UK event hosted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson entitled “Action and Solidarity – the Critical Decade.” The event is designed to bring leaders from a small group of developed and developing nations to a roundtable to put solutions on the table and set the course for the two weeks of negotiations.
He told the leaders gathered around the table to instruct their Ministers and negotiators to aim high and match ambition with action. We need to leave Glasgow in two weeks with a comprehensive and balanced deal, he added.
Later this evening, the Secretary-General will attend a reception hosted by the UK government for COP participants. And tomorrow, he is scheduled to have meetings with five regional groups as well as other bilateral meetings with world leaders, and he will also meet with representatives from civil society, including his Youth Advisory Group.
CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT
The UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, today said that tackling the climate emergency can contribute to the protection of millions of conflict-affected children.
The impact of climate change can aggravate fragilities and worsen conflict dynamics, Ms. Gamba said, adding that children are the most vulnerable group in times of crisis. She is also joining calls from other UN Officials to translate climate emergency commitments into actions, and to invest in adaptation and resilience so that children can realize their rights to grow up and to thrive in peaceful societies.
SECRETARY-GENERAL/COVID-19
In a message issued this morning on the five millionth death worldwide due to COVID-19, the Secretary-General stressed that this is not just a number on a page, but represents lives cut short by a merciless virus that respects no borders.
The Secretary-General called it a global shame that, while wealthy countries are rolling-out third doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, only about five per cent of people in Africa are fully vaccinated.
He also noted that five million deaths should also stand as a clear warning that we cannot let our guard down. We are still seeing more deaths, with overcrowded hospitals and exhausted health workers. We also see the risk of new variants spreading and claiming more lives.
He once again called on world leaders to fully support the Global Vaccination Strategy he launched with the World Health Organization (WHO) last month. We need to get vaccines into the arms of 40 per cent of people in all countries by the end of this year and 70 per cent by mid-2022.
COVAX
The UN team in Peru today said that more than 230,000 doses arrived in the country yesterday. This brings the total number of doses Peru has received from COVAX to more than 4.1 million.
The UN team in Jamaica says that more than 100,000 doses arrived last Friday, with another batch of nearly 370,000 doses donated by Canada expected to land today. This will bring the total number of doses from COVAX in Jamaica to more than one million.
The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) is supporting these efforts at the regional level.
ETHIOPIA
On Ethiopia, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today said that the situation in the northern part of the country is rapidly deteriorating. This is having a severe impact on civilians.
Continued fighting and hostilities in and around the towns of Dessie and Kombolcha in the Amhara region over the weekend reportedly resulted in large-scale displacement and increasing humanitarian needs. The two towns were already hosting a large number of displaced people from nearby areas.
Humanitarian supplies are reportedly available, but the delivery of urgent assistance has been hampered by the insecurity.
On Tigray, OCHA noted that no easing of restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian supplies into Tigray has been seen. Fuel for the humanitarian response has not entered Tigray since early August, forcing our partners to suspend or significantly reduce their work.
The movement of aid workers in and out of Tigray on roads, and since the suspension of UN Humanitarian Air Service flights on 22 October, has also been hampered.
The escalation of hostilities risks worsening the already dire humanitarian situation in Tigray, Amhara and Afar, where millions of people need urgent life-saving assistance.
The UN continues to call on all parties to the conflict to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure and to facilitate the free and safe movement of humanitarian supplies and personnel as required by international humanitarian law.
LIBYA
And over the weekend, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) called for the adoption of the necessary adjustments, including those put forward by the High National Commission for Elections (HNEC), to enable the holding of free, fair, inclusive, and credible parliamentary and presidential elections on 24 December.
UNSMIL emphasizes that only an inclusive legal framework will pave the way for a credible and inclusive electoral process, and recalls obligations under relevant international conventions to protecting the rights of citizens to participate in public affairs. In this regard, the Mission calls for the removal of restrictions to participation in the elections to allow Libyans holding public positions to have the opportunity to suspend their duties from the time of submission of their candidacy for presidential elections.
The Mission also urges Libyan institutions to ensure the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women and youth in the elections and to put in place all the necessary arrangements to protect voters and women candidates.
AFGHANISTAN
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today said that aid delivery and needs assessments continue in Afghanistan. Last week, more than 90,000 people received food assistance across the east of Afghanistan. This includes food-insecure people and Afghan returnees at the Torkham Transit Centre at the border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which is run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has also provided 8,300 people with winter cash assistance in different parts of the country, and an additional 66,000 people were identified to receive immediate humanitarian assistance in different provinces.
Vaccination campaigns against COVID-19, supported by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), are ongoing in Badakhshan and Takhar provinces, reaching some 30,000 people with a single-dose vaccine since 16 October. And some displaced people are also choosing to return to their places of origin, and as part of an assistance package, UNHCR and partners are providing families with transportation costs, while the World Food Programme (WFP) is providing them with food in their areas of origin.
OCHA adds that the country continues to be affected by the use of improvised explosive devices, with incidents reported recently in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces.
MYANMAR
On Myanmar, the UN team there remains deeply concerned over the recent escalation in fighting in the northwest between the Myanmar Military and the local Popular Defense Forces in Chin State, as well as Magway and Sagaing regions.
This has led to more people being displaced and property being destroyed, nine months after the military seized control over the Government of Myanmar on February 1st.
There have been worrying reports in recent days of the shelling and burning of more than 160 houses of civilians in the town of Thantlang in western Chin. An NGO office was also destroyed.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that some 37,000 people, including women and children, are now displaced in the country’s northwest. Many have fled their homes in anticipation of the current fighting, including into India. This is in addition to more than 7,000 people who remain displaced from previous fighting since December of 2019.
The UN team repeats its calls for parties to the conflict to meet their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and humanitarians, and reiterates that aid workers and their properties should never be a target.
I have also been asked about the trip of U.S. Governor Bill Richardson to Myanmar, and I can tell you that the Secretary-General was informed about the trip, and Governor Richardson has also said that he will convey the results of his visit to the Secretary- General.
UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS
On Friday afternoon, the Secretary-General updated staff here at UN Headquarters on our working arrangements.
He said that conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic here in New York have continued to improve and stabilize, and the host country is further opening up for international travel starting on November 8th. In addition, the overwhelming majority of staff have reported that they have been fully vaccinated.
Given this, starting on November 15th, staff members will no longer telework for up to four days a week, but managers have been encouraged to afford flexibility in line with the lessons learned over the past 20 months regarding adaptability and flexibility in our working methods.
While inside premises at UN Headquarters, all personnel will be required to continue to wear masks in common areas, such as corridors, elevators, and restrooms. Masks are also mandatory in enclosed meeting spaces where the vaccination status of all participants has not been confirmed.
However, vaccinated staff are no longer required to wear masks while working at their individual workstations.
Staff who are not vaccinated will continue to be required, at all times, to wear masks at the UN premises and to observe physical distancing wherever it is possible to do so.
HYBRID PRESS BRIEFING
This afternoon at 3 p.m., there will be a hybrid press briefing by Ambassador Juan Ramón de la Fuente Ramírez, President of the Security Council for the month of November and Permanent Representative of Mexico, my home country, to the United Nations. He will brief on the Council’s programme of work for the month.
FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION
Sri Lanka has now paid its regular budget dues. That takes us to 135 fully paid-up Member States.
***The guest at the Noon Briefing was Volker Perthes, the Special Representative for Sudan and Head of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Khartoum (UNITAMS). He spoke to reporters from Khartoum about the situation in Sudan.
