UN News Today 28 October 2024 |

Greenhouse gases surged to new highs in 2023, warns UN weather agency

New data from the UN on Monday indicated that greenhouse gases have hit a record high once again; the finding shows the need for urgent action from the world’s major polluters to protect us all from climate change, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has insisted.

That appeal comes as global leaders prepare to gather for the UN’s Climate Change Conference in Baku next month.

WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett told journalists in Geneva that carbon dioxide – which is one of the three main greenhouse gases, along with methane and nitrous oxide – is now accumulating in the atmosphere “faster than at any time experienced during human existence”.

She said that the UN agency’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin had found that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased by 11.4 per cent in just 20 years:

“These are more than just statistics. Every part per million matters, every fraction of a degree of temperature increase matters; it matters in terms of the speed of glacier and ice retreat, the acceleration of sea level rise, ocean heat and acidification. It matters in terms of the number of people who will be exposed to extreme heat every year, the extinction of species, the impact on our ecosystems and economies.”

Key greenhouse gas-producing events include forest fires and the El Niño weather phenomenon which fuelled drier conditions and a “surge” in gas concentrations in the latter part of 2023, according to WMO.

Its analysis shows that just under half of carbon dioxide emissions remain in the atmosphere, just over one quarter are absorbed by the ocean and just under 30 per cent are retained on land.

Gaza: No let-up in Israeli military offensive, situation ‘only getting worse’

After a weekend of continuing Israeli military operations throughout the Gaza Strip and especially the north, UN humanitarians warned on Monday that the dire aid situation “is only getting worse”.

UNRWA, the largest UN aid agency in Gaza, reported “no improvements” at Kerem Shalom, the main crossing point for lifesaving food, fuel and medicine.

“One of our biggest concerns now is people not having enough to eat,” the agency said, adding that aid entering the enclave is at its lowest level in months, with commercial goods “barely trickling in”.

The UN agency for Palestine refugees said that it continues to receive “desperate pleas” from colleagues in north Gaza where people remain trapped under rubble and first responders including the UN are blocked from reaching them.

“There is a huge sense of frustration among displaced families in north Gaza due to the horrors they are facing,” said UNRWA spokesperson Louise Wateridge.

Tens of thousands of civilians are “in grave danger”, she said, echoing a statement from the UN Secretary-General on Sunday in which he expressed shock at the “harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction.”

France should reverse hijab sports ban, say independent rights experts

The French ban on women and girls wearing the hijab while playing sport should be reversed, independent rights experts said on Monday.

The experts include Alexandra Xanthaki, who reports on cultural discrimination to the Human Rights Council, and members of the Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls. They are not UN staff or paid for their work.

In a statement, they said “Muslim women and girls who wear the hijab must have equal rights to participate in cultural and sporting life, and take part in all aspects of French society of which they are a part”.

They pointed to decisions by the French football and basketball federations to exclude players wearing the hijab from competitions, including at amateur level.

And they said that the French Government’s decision to prevent athletes from representing the country at the Paris Olympic Games in a hijab were “disproportionate and discriminatory”, while the decision by France’s top rights court confirming the football federation’s hijab ban “seem to imply that wearing the hijab in the public space…(was) tantamount to a breach of public order”.

The experts maintained that the French authorities had not taken steps to ensure that the hijab ban was based on international law, adding that France’s defence of secularism was “not legitimate grounds for imposing restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief”.

Such restrictions could only be implemented if it could be proved that they were necessary to ensure the safety, health and public order of others, along with the fulfilment of their rights and freedoms, the experts explained.

Daniel Johnson, UN News

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