UN News Today 18 September 2024 |

Satellites and AI offer hope for global solutions, says UN weather agency

The UN weather agency and leading climate scientists issued a new warning on Wednesday that global warming could reach 3 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels this century, without collective efforts by nations to resist this existential threat.

“Urgent and ambitious action” is needed in support of sustainable development, climate action and disaster risk reduction because these decisions “could be the difference between a future breakdown or a breakthrough to a better world” said Celeste, Saulo, the head of the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Here she is speaking in Geneva at the launch of the latest UN-partnered United in Science report:

“The science is clear: we are far off track from achieving global climate goals. 2023 was the warmest year on record by a huge margin. Leading international data sets say that the first eight months of 2024 are also the warmest on record.”

Ms. Saulo’s comments come against a backdrop of deadly wildfires across Latin America and Portugal, along with catastrophic flooding in central Europe this week linked to Storm Boris that has inundated parts of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

Ahead of the Summit of the Future at UN Headquarters in New York where global leaders will convene to address global warming – among other major challenges – the WMO chief welcomed the potential benefits offered by AI, machine learning and satellite-based forecasting, particularly to nations threatened by climate change and hazardous weather.

Southeast Asia Typhoon Yagi impacts millions of children, warns UNICEF

Nearly six million children have been affected by floods and landslides triggered by Typhoon Yagi in Viet Nam, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, UN humanitarians said on Wednesday.

The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said in an update that the emergency had compromised access to clean water, education, healthcare, food and shelter – and pushed already marginalized communities “deeper into crisis”.

June Kunugi, UNICEF Regional Director for East Asia and Pacific, said that the immediate priority was to restore the essential services that children and families rely on.

She highlighted the “surge” in extreme weather events in Southeast Asia that had been made worse by climate change; and she noted that when disasters hit, vulnerable children “often pay the highest price”.

Typhoon Yagi is the most powerful storm to hit Asia so far this year.

It brought torrential rains on top of existing seasonal rainfall. It has caused damage to more than 850 schools and at least 550 health centres, the vast majority in Viet Nam.

Humanitarian assessments in the region are still ongoing.

Refugee agency urges end to arbitrary detention of asylum-seekers

The detention of asylum-seekers around the world is harmful and contrary to their fundamental right to seek protection – which is why the practice should stop – the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Wednesday.

In a new policy brief for border authorities highlighting best practices in some countries, the UN agency noted that in many others, “asylum-seekers and refugees are often arrested and detained, unable to challenge their situation”.

The UNHCR cited the experience of one Iraqi asylum-seeker who spent two years in a Hungarian transit zone, where his movements were “severely restricted”, and he and others faced constant surveillance.

His detention was deemed to be arbitrary by top independent human rights experts meeting at UN Geneva, the UN refugee agency said.

UNHCR also cited a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights which found that four Tunisian nationals who were rescued at sea and brought to a reception facility on the Italian island of Lampedusa “did not have the opportunity to apply for asylum” before their “summary removal” from Italy.

Conditions in the centre were “inhuman and degrading” according to the court, the agency explained.

Some countries have seen limits imposed on how long asylum-seekers can be detained such as the Republic of South Korea, UNHCR said.

It noted that in March 2023, a South Korean court ruled it unconstitutional to detain asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants indefinitely, while also offering guidance on how long people should be held, as well as alternatives to detention.

Daniel Johnson, UN News

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