Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the high-level meeting on sea level rise, in New York today:
Rising seas are sinking futures. My report on sea level rise lays bare the scale and speed of the danger. In 2024, the global sea level rose almost six millimetres — the highest annual increase ever recorded. And the pace is accelerating.
Greenhouse gases — overwhelmingly from burning fossil fuels — are cooking our planet. And the ocean is taking the heat — absorbing some 90 per cent of it. This past summer brought record heatwaves, while a strengthening El Niño is driving sea-surface temperatures to new highs.
According to the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change], even in the best case scenario, sea levels are projected to rise by as much as half a metre by century’s end. Without drastic emissions cuts, that rise could reach a metre. Meanwhile, Greenland and West Antarctica are losing ice faster — risking irreversible damages.
Around 770 million people live less than five metres above the high-tide line. Without significant adaptation and mitigation, the risks facing coastal cities and communities could increase tenfold by 2100.
And sea level rise is a threat multiplier — battering economies, trade, infrastructure and food systems; erasing cultural heritage and identity; fuelling instability; and threatening the territorial integrity of some nations.
When land disappears and freshwater turns to salt, competition follows, and we risk a mass exodus of entire populations. This is climate injustice: those who did least to cause this crisis pay the highest price.
My report points to action across three fronts.
First, tackle the root causes. Any overshoot of the 1.5°C limit must be as small and short as possible. Global emissions must peak immediately, and fall 60 per cent by 2035. We must triple renewable energy, double energy efficiency, slash methane emissions, halt and reverse deforestation and transition away from fossil fuels — fast and fairly. The G20 must lead, and COP31 [the 2026 UN Climate Change Conference] in Türkiye must deliver.
Second, we must protect people from rising waters. By embedding sea level rise resilience in national adaptation plans, development budgets, infrastructure and land-use decisions, and drawing on science, data and the knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
Today, 128 countries report having multi-hazard early warning systems. We cannot stop until coverage reaches every person on Earth. And Governments must plan early and plan with people — safeguarding rights and keeping communities together wherever possible.
Finance must match the crisis. The $300 billion annual goal for developing countries must be a step towards mobilizing $1.3 trillion a year by 2035. Adaptation finance must triple as a first step to closing the adaptation finance gap.
And the Green Climate Fund and Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage must be fully resourced. In particular, I am very frustrated with the, I would say, ridiculous amount that is today in the Loss and Damage Fund.
Third, close the legal gaps. The International Court of Justice and the International Law Commission stated that continued Statehood is possible — even if territory is lost. States have called for maritime zones and boundaries to be preserved as coastlines shift.
People’s rights do not disappear because their homes do, and those people must be protected. We need legal clarity consistent with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea — and international cooperation is essential to reach the arrangements that affected States and local communities deserve.
I commend Member States for negotiating a comprehensive UN declaration on sea-level rise. This milestone must now be translated into action. We must also build on the progress of the Agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction — or BBNJ — which reached 100 Parties yesterday.
Sea level rise is measured in millimetres, but its toll is measured in millions of shattered lives, uprooted communities and stolen futures. Those on the frontlines must be front and centre in every decision. We cannot allow countries and cultures to vanish beneath the waves, or leave the aspirations of billions dead in the water.
The SOS has gone out. The world must answer.