NEW: UNGA president urges global cooperation to assist vulnerable nations in climate change

Dennis Francis, president of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), has called for global cooperation and partnerships to assist vulnerable nations in coping with climate change.

During an interview with Xinhua on the heels of the COP28, or the 28th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Francis pointed out the critical challenges faced by small island developing states, least developed countries, and landlocked developing countries in light of the effects of climate change.

The UNGA president stressed the necessity of “the will on the part of all stakeholders to act responsibly in helping to stabilise the climate,” especially in support of countries on the front lines of climate change.

Recalling his recent visit to the Pacific region for the Pacific Island Forum, Francis shared firsthand observations of the critical situation faced by island nations.

“Out in the Pacific, they are having to deal with rising sea levels as a consequence of climate change, and rising at a relatively fast rate,” he noted, underscoring the imminent threat of inundation and the potential need for population relocation and migration.

Some Pacific Island nations, he said, are already in talks with third countries about relocating their populations in case of total inundation.

This dire situation raises significant legal and existential questions for these countries.
Francis called on the international community to address these concerns urgently.

“The rights and obligations of those countries can be compromised unless it is definitively clarified by the international community as to what happens to those states that can be inundated.”

This issue extends beyond the Pacific, affecting small island states in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean, integral members of the international community.
Talking about the outcome of the COP28, the UNGA president said, “The outcome … represented an advance, an improvement.”

This was the first time a COP outcome document specifically mentioned the need for “a transition away from hydrocarbon-based energy,” he said. – Xinhua