Source: United Nations (video statements)
Noon briefing by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
COP30
Occupied Palestinian Territory
Sudan
Ukraine
Philippines/Super Typhoon Fung-Wong
Security Council
Science Day for Peace and Development
COP30
This morning, at the opening plenary of COP30 in Belém, Brazil, Simon Stiell, the UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, said that ten years ago in Paris, we were designing the future – a future that would clearly see the curve of emissions bend downwards. He pointed out that the emissions curve has been bent downwards, but we must move much faster – both on reductions of emissions and strengthening resilience.
Mr. Stiell emphasized that we don’t need to wait for late Nationally Determined Contributions to slowly trickle in to spot the gap and design the innovations necessary to tackle it. He added that the economics of this transition are as indisputable as the costs of inaction.
As you know, the Secretary-General was in Belém last week, where he participated at the Belém Climate Summit. On Friday afternoon, he spoke at a session on 10 years of the Paris Agreement: NDCs and Financing. He said that a temporary overshoot above 1.5 degrees – starting at the latest in the early 2030s - is now inevitable. But, he added, we can manage the scale and duration of that overshoot and bring temperatures back down, if we take serious action now.
The Secretary-General called on all at COP30, to renew the great promise the world made a decade ago in Paris – by kickstarting a new decade of implementation and acceleration.
And I also want to flag that today, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) today released its latest numbers updating the recent NDC Synthesis report. It shows that new NDCs, including many received in recent days, will reduce emissions by 12 per cent in 2035. UNFCCC highlighted that every very fraction of a degree of heating avoided will save millions of lives and billions of dollars in climate damages.
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
Turning to Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that one month into the ceasefire, efforts to ramp up aid are still being held back by red tape, ongoing bans on key humanitarian partners, too few crossings and routes, and insecurity that persists despite the ceasefire.
Over the weekend, our teams reported shelling and navy fire in different parts of Gaza – though at much lower levels than before the ceasefire.
In some areas, our teams still have to coordinate every movement in advance with the Israeli authorities. Yesterday, we made eight coordination attempts. Only two were fully facilitated, and four were impeded on the ground – including one that was delayed for 10 hours before the team finally received a green light to move.
Despite the challenges, the UN and our partners are seizing every opportunity to expand operations.
Yesterday, UN agencies kicked off the catch-up campaign for routine immunization, nutrition and growth monitoring – which we mentioned last week. UNICEF, the UN Relief and Works Agency, and the World Health Organization are carrying out the campaign with partners, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. The campaign focuses on children who missed earlier vaccination campaigns and aims to reach 44,000 children overall.
Today, WHO reported that Al Kheir Hospital in Khan Younis resumed operations last week after being forced out of service following attacks in February 2024. The agency supported its rehabilitation by restoring water, sanitation, power and structural systems, and providing essential medical equipment and medicines.
WHO also set up a new 20-bed nutrition stabilization centre at the hospital to treat children with acute and severe malnutrition. This brings the total across Gaza to seven such centres, with 70 inpatient beds in all.
Between Wednesday and Friday, our humanitarian partners provided mental health and psychosocial support services to 1,500 children and 500 caregivers in different locations across the south. They received help with emotional expression and stress reduction, with messaging on the prevention of child abuse.
Over the weekend, our humanitarian partners distributed nearly 40,000 winter clothing kits and pairs of shoes to children under 10. The UN and our partners are also distributing blankets to hospitals and other locations – including nearly 50,000 blankets between Wednesday and Saturday alone.
Since the ceasefire, over the past month, our humanitarian partners have been providing water trucking services through 2,000 locations across the Gaza Strip. They’ve also distributed 15,000 hygiene kits and restored some domestic water supply in the Az Zaytoun neighbourhood of Gaza.
Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date=2025-11-10