U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world cannot “allow countries and cultures to vanish beneath the waves” on Thursday as the General Assembly approved its first declaration on sea-level rise.
This statement is meant to shift the international response to the rise in sea level driven by humans from fragmented initiatives to sustained, coordinated and adequately-funded action. It comes as country after country has lamented the toll of climate change in speeches this week and called for collective action.
