NEW YORK (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world cannot “allow countries and cultures to vanish beneath the waves” on Thursday as the General Assembly approved its first declaration on sea-level rise.
This statement is meant to shift the international response to the rise in sea level driven by humans from fragmented initiatives to sustained, coordinated and adequately-funded action. It comes as country after country has lamented
the toll of climate change in speeches this week and called for collective action.
Contrarily, U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly calls climate change a hoax, a con job or a scam.
Here are the world leaders in their own words:
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THE QUOTE: “Until recently, the response to climate change was firmly established at the center of the international agenda. This year, however, the topic disappeared from the debates of the G7 and G20, forums that bring together the largest carbon emitters. It is time to resume the offensive and inflict a defeat on denialism. Nature reminds us every day that we live on one planet. The glaciers in the Himalayas are melting. The super El Nino may cause torrential rains, droughts and forest fires in different parts of the globe.”
— Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, president of Brazil
THE SITUATION: Climate change and deforestation threaten the Amazon. A strong El Nino, a cyclic warming of the equatorial Pacific, causes higher temperatures and drier weather in the rainforest, conditions that worsen wildfires.
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THE QUOTE: “What we experienced in Nepal was Himalayan tsunami. But the larger looming threat is even more consequential. It is not only the devastation we mourn today; it is for greater danger that lies ahead if the world continues to look away... I call upon you to treat climate action not as a charity, but as a matter of justice.”
— Shisir Khanal, minister of foreign affairs for Nepal
THE SITUATION: Human-caused global warming thinned glaciers and thawed mountain permafrost, likely helping to destabilize the Himalayan slope that collapsed last month and unleashed catastrophic flooding across Nepal, according to a World Weather Attribution report. More than 1,300 people were killed and over 5,000 remain missing.
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THE QUOTE: “To protect the lives of present and future generations, all states must take serious action to tackle global warming. I believe that climate action and economic growth can go hand-in-hand.”
— Sanae Takaichi, prime minister of Japan
THE SITUATION: Japan is working to protect communities from warming and has pledged to slash emissions, but extreme heat remains a threat in the short term.
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THE QUOTE: “I think this summer was a summer of truth. The recent summer months have been, as we heard from the scientists, the hottest on record, but may be the coolest for the years to come.”
— Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission
THE SITUATION: Europe is heating up twice as fast as the global rate, making it the fastest-warming continent.
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THE QUOTE: “By the end of this century, 12 to 18% of our coastal areas could be submerged by sea level rise, affecting the livelihoods of tens of millions. Climate change has caused loss and damage equivalent to 1% of our GDP. And our food security is at serious risk”
— Tarique Rahman, prime minister of Bangladesh
THE SITUATION: The low-lying geography of Bangladesh makes it one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change.
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THE QUOTE: “Cabo Verde speaks with the same voice as other countries that are also living the climate crisis every day. For us, climate change is not a distant risk. It is an existential reality affecting our economies, our food and water security, our coastlines and ultimately our people’s future.”
— Francisco Carvalho, prime minister of Cape Verde
THE SITUATION: Cape Verde, like other small island developing states, is grappling with rising sea levels and increasingly powerful storms that erode shorelines, submerge land and threaten homes and livelihoods.
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THE QUOTE: “Nearly a third of the world’s tuna is caught in Pacific waters. And it’s moving east into the high seas. More than a quarter of our people live within a kilometer of the shore. Six of our communities have already moved. Two more are moving now. And half a degree is not a rounding error. For us, it is the difference between adaptation and relocation.”
— Naiqama Lalabalavu, president of Fiji
THE SITUATION: Lalabalavu cited projections that by 2050, the fish available to each Fijian is projected to fall by nearly a quarter, from 41 kilograms (90 pounds) a year to about 31. And more than half of that loss comes from climate change, he said.
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THE QUOTE: “The climate crisis is often referred to as a ‘global group project shared by all 8 billion people on Earth.’ A single country cannot tackle this challenge alone. At the same time, abandoning growth cannot bring everyone on board.”
— Lee Jae Myung, president of Korea
THE SITUATION: The impact of extreme weather worsened by climate change is far-reaching in South Korea. Farmers face higher costs and must use more labor to produce the same or lower yields.
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THE QUOTE: “We live in a fragmented world. Nations are turning inward. Promises are made loudly and kept quietly, if at all. Each country is tempted to say: It is not my storm, not my coastline, not my problem. The ocean does not recognize that thinking. It is one body of water. What warms in one hemisphere breaks upon another. The sea has never been fragmented. Only we are.”
— Philip Davis, prime minister of the Bahamas
THE SITUATION: Like many other countries in the Global South, Bahamas has a lot of debt from warming-connected weather disasters. Hurricane Dorian, the strongest storm to hit the country on record, caused $3.4 billion in damage in 2019.
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THE QUOTE: “For those who have declared climate change a hoax perpetrated by geopolitical opponents, the warnings of recent times cannot have been clearer. Melting glaciers, flash flooding, droughts, record-breaking heatwaves, brush fires, hurricanes and other extreme weather phenomena are unmistakable signals of an overburdened planet. Climate change is the ultimate test of global equity.”
— John Dramani Mahama, president of Ghana
THE SITUATION: Ghana faces erratic rainfall, erosion of its coastal towns and accelerating desertification. In June, Mahama said Ghana and coastal West Africa were hit with unprecedented torrential rain that killed 39 people.
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