This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

There is an exit off ‘the highway to climate hell’, Guterres insists

“It’s climate crunch time” when it comes to tackling rising carbon emissions the UN Secretary-General said on Wednesday.

In a key climate speech at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, António Guterres pointed to latest scientific data showing that last month was the hottest May in history.

The UN chief said that global emissions need to fall by nine per cent every year, just to keep the 1.5 degree temperature rise limit above pre-industrial levels alive, but last year, emissions of warming greenhouse gases increased, by one per cent. 

The UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) also reported on Wednesday that there is an 80 per cent chance that the 1.5 degree limit will be passed in one of the next five years.

Mr. Guterres said a half degree difference in global warming could mean some island States or coastal communities disappearing forever.

“We are playing Russian roulette with our planet”, the UN chief insisted, before saying that it was “still just about possible” to pull back from the brink “but only if we fight harder”.

He called on the advertising industry to drop oil and gas accounts and asked countries to implement a total ban on advertising fossil fuel-based businesses.

Acute food insecurity set to rise in 18 ‘hunger hotspots’: FAO/WFP 

No less than 18 crisis locations already suffering from dire food insecurity could see a “firestorm of hunger” without urgent assistance, UN humanitarians said on Wednesday.

Although the “hunger hotspots” are principally in Africa, fears of famine remain in Gaza and Sudan, where conflict continues to rage, raising the regional risk of new hunger emergencies, warned the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

“Once a famine is declared, it is too late – many people will have already starved to death,” said Cindy McCain, WFP Executive Director. 

“In Somalia in 2011, half of the 250,000 people who died of hunger perished before famine was officially declared” but the world failed to heed the warnings.

“We must learn the lesson and act now to stop these hotspots from igniting a firestorm of hunger”, Ms. McCain continued.  

The early warning report from both UN agencies which covers 17 countries and the drought-hit cluster of Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe - also highlights devastating hunger crises underway in Haiti, Mali, and South Sudan. 

Although conflict remains a principal driver of food insecurity, the joint early warning report from WFP and FAO emphasized that climate shocks were responsible too, pointing to the “still lingering” El Niño weather phenomenon and the “looming threat of La Niña”. 

UNHCR: Almost three million refugees will need resettlement in 2025

More than 2.9 million refugees worldwide will need resettlement next year, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Wednesday.

The estimate marks an increase of 20 per cent from 2024 which is equivalent to half a million refugees; the alarming trend has been driven by ongoing mass displacement, new conflicts and the impacts of climate change.

Projections from UNHCR indicate that for the ninth consecutive year, Syrian refugees uprooted by civil war have the highest resettlement needs, numbering more than 900,000.

Afghanistan refugees are next in line - at more than half a million, followed by South Sudan (242,000), the Rohingya from Myanmar (226,000), Sudan (172,000) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (158,000). 

Resettlement needs have also risen sharply in the Americas, owing to unprecedented levels of displacement there, the UN refugee agency said, as it appealed to more countries to take in vulnerable individuals who otherwise were likely to face exploitation by people smugglers and traffickers.

Shanaé Harte, UN News.