Roundup: UN chief urges solidarity, climate action in Dorian-hit Bahamas

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UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited the Bahamas to support humanitarian efforts in the wake of Hurricane Dorian, and called for higher climate ambition as well as more action.

In the Caribbean country's capital Nassau on Friday, Guterres held a joint press encounter with Prime Minister of the Bahamas Hubert Minnis, and visited a shelter for Dorian evacuees and the Emergency Operations Center of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

While expressing the solidarity of the United Nations with the government and the people of the Bahamas, Guterres extended "deepest" condolences to those who have lost loved ones, and sympathies to the many others who have lost their homes and communities.

He praised "the very quick and effective response that the government was able to mobilize and coordinate" as well as the "impressive" support of so many entities in the international community.

"Our hearts go out to all the people of the Bahamas and the United Nations is right by their side," he said.

The UN chief went on to emphasize the need for raised climate ambition and more action.

Saying "science is telling us: this is just the start," he stressed that without urgent action, climate disruption is only going to get worse.

He pointed out that July 2019 was the hottest month ever, and that the period from 2015 to 2019 is on track to be the hottest five years since records began.

Also, he noted the climate emergency packs a "triple punch of injustice."

First, the worst impact is on countries with the lowest greenhouse emissions, and the Bahamas is a very good example of that, he said.

Second, it is the poorest and most vulnerable people in those countries who suffer most, and again, this has happened with the communities in the Bahamas, he continued.

Third, repeated storms trap countries in a cycle of disaster and debt, he warned.

The Bahamas cannot be expected to foot this bill alone, Guterres maintained. "These new large-scale climate-related disasters demand a new multilateral response."

On climate financing, he said, "We must reach the target of 100 billion U.S. dollars per year from public and private sources, for mitigation and adaptation in the developing world, as rich countries have been promising for nearly a decade."

In cases of the Bahamas, he expressed support for proposals to convert debt into investment in resilience.

"Concessional financing must be made available to indebted middle-income countries that are vulnerable to extreme weather events."

Most importantly, he said, the entire international community must address the climate crisis through raising ambition and action to implement the Paris Agreement, including ensuring collectively that global temperature rise does not go beyond 1.5 degrees, reducing emissions by 45 percent by 2030, and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

Outside the shelter for Hurricane Dorian evacuees, whose residents were mostly Haitians, Guterres said that in disasters, migrants are always a very vulnerable part. "But I've seen the government is conscious of this problem."

He said although the evacuees are not Bahamians, "they are being supported by the Bahamians government and the Bahamian society."

Outside the Emergency Operations Center of the NEMA, he paid tribute to the government and the people of the Bahamas for their extraordinary response to the tragic events.

"The government is clearly conducting the operations with NEMA very effective in coordination and with the support of the intentional community, so it was possible to have a response that I believe is an example to be followed in many parts of the world," he said.

He again said the United Nations will be fully supporting the Bahamian government in its efforts to coordinate the recovery and the reconstruction.

According to media reports, the list of missing as a result of the Category-5 storm stands at an alarming 1,300 people and the death toll at 50.

On Wednesday, the UN food agency, the World Food Programme (WFP), sent two vessels with humanitarian cargo to Marsh Harbor, in Abaco Island, a UN spokesman said.

The ships offloaded 13,800 individual ready-to-eat meals and relief material from WFP and its partners, including the World Health Organization and the UN migration agency.

WFP also distributed over 1,500 ready-to-eat meals to people in the hard-to-reach areas in Little Abaco.

For its part, the spokesman said, the UN Development Programme released an initial 200,000 dollar emergency funding grant to support debris and waste management; housing and building damage assessments and the national recovery strategy. Enditem

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