Small island nations have urged world leaders gathered in New York not to abandon efforts to limit global warming to 1.5C, warning that the goal remains a legal obligation rather than an aspiration.
The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), a coalition of 39 small islands and low-lying coastal nations, said in a statement delivered at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that "1.5°C is not an arbitrary goal that would be nice to achieve. It is the legally affirmed limit, endorsed by the UNGA, committed to by countries to protect people, ecosystems and economies".
The statement, delivered by Anne Rasmussen, Aosis's lead climate change negotiator, said the best available science showed that limiting the scale and duration of any overshoot of 1.5°C, and bringing warming back under that threshold, remained possible.
"We absolutely cannot surrender our pursuit of 1.5°C," it said.
Ms Rasmussen said countries gathered for the assembly's 81st session needed to "treat escalating climate change impacts with the urgency this crisis merits", adding that "clear, concrete commitments must be set out to effectively respond to climate change and realign with 1.5°C."
The World Meteorological Organisation had found at the launch of the COP31 Action Agenda on Monday that the previous two months had been the hottest on record, and that sea level rise is unprecedented.
"This cannot be business as usual," she said.
The statement follows a UN Environment Programme report published in September, which found the world was set to cross the 1.5°C threshold within the next few years and that humanity had lost the chance to keep warming within the limit agreed under the 2015 Paris climate accord.
The report said temperatures could still be brought back down if countries acted with urgency, pursuing a strategy of "overshoot", in which warming is allowed to rise above 1.5°C for a period before being reduced through ending fossil fuel use and developing technology to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Ms Rasmussen cited last year's Global Tipping Points Report, which found that ice sheets had already been at risk since roughly 1°C of warming, with a likely tipping point around 1.5°C.
"We all know what we must do – transition away from fossil fuels in a just manner, triple renewables, and double energy efficiency by 2030, and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050," she said.
"Each fraction of a degree of warming increases the risk of irreversible sea level rise," she said. "Yet we have had to watch in horror as our brothers and sisters in Nepal experience actual catastrophe.”
“In Fiji, plans are advancing to relocate communities as climate change intensifies sea level rise, landslides and extreme rainfall. In the Caribbean, drought-struck farmers and citizens are facing no relief, all while grappling with extreme heat."
The bloc also called for climate finance for small island states to be made a declared priority, saying it must be "accessible, affordable, predictable and responsive" to their vulnerability.
Nepal, which suffered massive floods triggered by a glacial lake collapse that killed more than 1,300 people in late August and left thousands missing, is awaiting 20 million in relief from the UN’s new loss and damage fund.
Apart from Aosis, UNGA also saw calls from chief Antonio Guterres, who is serving the final months of his second term, for polluters to pay.
"Those who polluted the most – and profited the most – must do far more to repair the damage they caused. Polluters must pay," Mr Guterres said. "And to the leaders, cities, civil society and citizens working to hold them accountable: you are on the right side of history. Keep going."
Aosis said it wanted the incoming presidency of COP31, the next UN climate summit, to commit to selecting a plan from small island states through the Global Implementation Accelerator, a process for advancing state-led climate projects.
It also said climate finance for small island states must be a "declared priority".
"Solutions are futile if our countries cannot access the means of implementation and resources for essential adaptation. Climate finance must be accessible, affordable, predictable and responsive to our vulnerability."
