The UN Secretary-General, Anthony Guterreson Tuesday warned of the risk of an exodus “of biblical proportions” due to rising sea levels due to global warming, and called for “filling the gaps” in international law, especially for refugees.

“The danger is particularly acute for the nearly 900 million people living in low-lying coastal areas, one in 10 people on Earth.” Guterres featured before the Security Council.

“Communities living in low-lying areas and entire countries may be gone forever. We would witness a mass exodus of entire populations of biblical proportions,” he added.

Some small, sparsely populated island states are in danger of disappearing completely. But the impact of sea level rise, caused by the melting of glaciers, the expansion of the oceans due to higher temperatures and now especially the melting of the polar ice caps, goes much further.

countries at risk

“Whatever the scenario, countries such as Bangladesh, China, India and the Netherlands are all at riskGuterres warned.

“Megacities on all continents will experience severe impacts such as Cairo, Lagos, Maputo, Bangkok, Dhaka, Jakarta, Mumbai, Shanghai, Copenhagen, London, Los Angeles, New York, Buenos Aires and Santiago‘ he detailed.

Among the hardest hit island nations are Kiribati, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Nauru, Tonga, Fiji Islands, Maldives and Marshall Islands, which have been claiming for more than 30 years concrete climate measures at global level.

According to UN climate experts (IPCC), the sea ​​level rise between 15 and 25 cm between 1900 and 2018, and it is expected to rise another 43 cm by 2100 on a planet experiencing a temperature increase of 2°C per year, compared to the pre-industrial era.

However, it may increase by 84 cm if the planet warms +3 °C or +4 °C.

The rise in water beyond the subsidence of certain areas is accompanied by an increase in storms and flooding in coastal areas.

This is how cities will become due to the rise in sea levels caused by climate change

Guterres cited new data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released Tuesday explaining the dire danger posed by rising sea levels.

“Global mean sea levels have risen faster since 1900 than at any previous century in the past 3,000 years,” he told attendees. “The global ocean has warmed faster in the past century than at any time in the past 11,000 years.”. Sea levels will rise significantly even if global warming is “miraculously” limited to 2.7°F (1.5°C), the elusive goal of the Paris Agreement.

It’s more likely that the earth is on a warming path that amounts to a “death sentence” for the most vulnerable countries, including many small island states, Guterres warned. According to WMO data, global mean sea levels will rise between 6.5 and 9.8 feet (two to three meters) over the next 2,000 years if warming is limited to 2.7°F (1.5°C).

In this context of populations that will be forced into exile, Guterres called for “filling the gaps in existing legal frameworks” at the global level.

no consensus

“This should include refugee law,” he insisted. But solutions must also be found for the future of states that will lose their land area completely.

He also believed that the UN Security Council “has an essential role to play” in “addressing the devastating security challenges posed by the rising waters”.

That is a controversial point within the agency.

For example, in 2021, Russia vetoed a resolution that made a generic link between global warming and global security, a resolution supported by the majority of that Council’s members.