Remarks by António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, at the Belém Climate Summit – Energy Transition Roundtable.
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Speaking at an Energy Transition Roundtable on the sidelines of the World Leaders Climate Action Summit in Belém, Brazil, Secretary-General António Guterres said, “renewables are now the cheapest source of new electricity,” but stressed that “we must go much faster – and ensure all nations share the benefits.”
Guterres said, renewables “are powering prosperity and empowering communities long left in the dark,” and noted that “every dollar invested in renewables creates three times more jobs than a dollar invested in fossil fuels – and clean energy jobs now outnumber fossil fuel jobs worldwide.”
He said, “the renewables revolution is here.”
The Secretary-General said, “scientists tell us that overshooting 1.5 degrees is now inevitable, starting, at the latest, in the early 2030s. But how high and how long that overshoot lasts depends on the speed and scale of our actions today.”
To return below 1.5 degrees by century’s end, he said, “global emissions must fall by almost half by 2030, reach net zero by 2050, and go net negative afterwards.”
Guterres called for eliminating fossil fuel subsidies; supporting workers and communities whose livelihoods still depend on coal, oil and gas; investment in infrastructure, including grids, storage, and efficiency, meeting all new electricity demand with clean power, including from the data centres powering artificial intelligence; and unlocking finance at scale for developing countries.
He said, “the pathways for each country may look different, but the destination must be the same: A net-zero world, followed consistently by a net negative world – powered by renewables.”
The Secretary-General said, “we must support developing countries to implement their commitment to transition away from fossil fuels through stronger cooperation, investment and technology transfer – and calibrated to different capacities and dependencies.”
At COP28 in 2023 in Dubai countries had agreed to transition away from fossil fuels and to triple renewable energy capacity and double energy efficiency by 2030.
The Belém Climate Summit, taking place 6 and 7 November, brings together heads of state and government, ministers, and leaders of international organizations to discuss pressing climate change challenges and commitments.
Noon briefing by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
-AU-UN Annual Conference
-Sudan
-South Sudan / Security Council
-Occupied Palestinian Territory
-Lebanon / Israel
-Hurricane Melissa
-Shipwreck off the Coast of Malaysia and Thailand
-Senior Personnel Appointment
-Resident Coordinator – Bhutan
-Refugees / Global Winter Fundraising Campaign
-Global Cooling Watch 2025
-Briefing Tomorrow
AU-UN ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Tomorrow, the 9th African Union–United Nations annual conference will take place here at UN headquarters.
The high-level discussions will be co-chaired by Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, along with the Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.
The meeting will focus on progress in the implementation of cooperation frameworks between the two organizations, but also on the joint action and challenges linked to peace, security, development, human rights and climate action.
The annual conference will conclude with a joint press conference by the Secretary-General and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf. This will take place here, in this room, at 3:00 pm.
SUDAN
Today, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, arrived in Sudan. In Port Sudan, he met with authorities, humanitarian partners and the diplomatic community. We’ll share more details on those meetings as soon as we can.
Mr. Fletcher continues to call for an end to the atrocities in Sudan and to support efforts toward peace. He is also working to ensure that humanitarian teams receive the access and funding they need to deliver life-saving assistance across conflict lines.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warns that the situation in North Darfur State remains volatile following the Rapid Support Forces’ takeover of El Fasher on October 26th. While large-scale clashes have subsided, sporadic fighting and drone activity persist, leaving civilians at risk of looting, forced recruitment and gender-based violence.
In South Kordofan State, a drone strike reportedly hit the town of Um Barmbeeta yesterday, destroying a school and injuring several displaced people. The state capital Kadugli and the nearby town of Dilling remain under siege, with widespread insecurity restricting access to thousands of families in need of urgent aid.
Our humanitarian partners report that more than 12,000 people fleeing violence in the Kordofan and Darfur regions have sought refuge in White Nile State since late October – an average of 700 each day. Displaced families face severe shortages of food, shelter and water, while host communities are overstretched.
Civilians must be protected, and aid workers must be granted safe and sustained access to deliver assistance across the front lines.
Full highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date=2025-11-11
Joint comments to the media by Alhaji Musa Timothy Kabba, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Sierra Leone, and President of the Security Council for the month of November, on behalf of the Women, Peace and Security, Shared Commitments Holders Members of the Security Council.
UN Deputy High Representative of the Office for Disarmament Affairs Adedeji Ebo said, “More than one billion firearms are in circulation globally. Their continued proliferation is both a symptom and a driver of the multiple security crises that our world is facing.”
Addressing the Council, he said that that firearms’ widespread availability underscores “the urgent need to address the consequences of illicit small arms and light weapons, which are far-reaching”
He reported, “persistent violations of arms embargoes in contexts such as Libya, Yemen, and Haiti, where diverted weapons are arming criminal groups and terrorist networks. These are facilitated by poorly manned borders, and increasingly by illicit digital activities.”
He also said, “We are witnessing a rise in illicitly manufactured and craft-produced arms. For example, more 3D-printed are available in illicit markets, especially in countries across Western Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean.”
He highlighted, “In 2023, the combined revenue of the world’s 100 largest arms companies amounted to $632 billion. In 2024, global military expenditure had surged to $2.7 trillion US dollars – representing a 37 percent increase since 2015.”
Roraima Ana Andriani, Special Representative of INTERPOL to the European Union, said, “The fight against the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons requires alignment between the diplomatic and operational dimensions of security. Diplomatic leadership in the multilateral arena is essential to translate political will into concrete cooperation among countries.”
Mohamed Ibn Chambas, High Representative for the Silencing the Guns Initiative of the African Union stated, “For each illicit weapon we take out of circulation, we contribute to saving lives, restoring trust, and giving peace a fighting chance.”
Arnoux Descardes, Executive Director, Volontariat pour le développement d’Haïti (VDH) said, “Today, the massive trafficking of illegal weapons and the circulation of firearms in Haiti are a source of great concern, despite the arms embargo imposed by the United Nations Security Council since 2022, along with a sanction’s regime monitored by the group of experts. However, the proliferation of weapons continues.”
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
Video message by Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, on Leaving no one behind: Ensuring sustainable action to end violence against children.
For 77 years, we in the United Nations Security and Safety Services have safeguarded the spaces where global decisions are made. We ensure that world leaders can meet, deliberate, and act in safety and confidence. From the General Assembly in New York to major diplomatic events around the world, our presence may be quiet, but it is essential. We ensure that dialogue across peoples and nations can take place safely and effectively.
As the United Nations Department for Safety and Security (UNDSS) marks its 20th anniversary, Secretary-General António Guterres shares his message of gratitude to all who help the United Nations stay and deliver in the world’s most challenging places.
Congolese photographer Do Nsoseme is featured in the "Through Her Lens" photo exhibition at the United Nations headquarters. For a week, the Global Organization has marked the work of women in Peace and Security. Twenty-five years ago, the international community agreed a new approach to women’s inclusion in peace processes in what came to be known as the Women, Peace and Security Agenda (WPS), outlined in the landmark Security Council resolution 1325. Photographer and activist Do Nsoseme reveals how admirable women in her country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo have inspired her artistic creation as a poet and photographer.
Noon Briefing by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
-Secretary-General/Belém Climate Summit
-Occupied Palestinian Territory
-UNIFIL
-Philippines
-Hurricane Melissa
-West and Central Africa
-Food Prices
-International Day
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SECRETARY-GENERAL/BELÉM CLIMATE SUMMIT
The Secretary-General is in Brazil, where he is participating in the Belém Climate Summit. Today, he spoke at a thematic session on Energy Transition.
The Secretary-General noted that the global energy landscape is changing at lightning speed. Last year, he pointed out, ninety per cent of new power capacity came from renewables and global investment in clean energy reached two trillion US dollars – eight hundred billion dollars more than fossil fuels.
The Secretary-General highlighted that renewables revolution is here, but we must go much faster – and ensure all nations share the benefits.
Also today, the Secretary-General held a bilateral meeting with the Vice-President of Türkiye, Cevdet Yilmaz. He also met Denis Sassou N’Guesso, President of the Republic of Congo.
Yesterday afternoon, the Secretary-General spoke at a thematic session on “Climate and Nature: Forests and Oceans”, where he stressed that protecting forests and oceans is not charity, it is a legal and moral responsibility – and smart economics. He called on all to honour that duty, by safeguarding these foundations of life, investing in nature’s recovery, and ensuring that people and planet thrive together – now and for generations to come. Yesterday, the Secretary-General also held a bilateral meeting with Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados.
This afternoon, the Secretary-General is expected to speak at a session on 10 years of the Paris Agreement: NDCs and Financing. He will depart Belém tomorrow and will be back here in New York on Sunday.
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
Turning to Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that despite significant progress on the humanitarian scale-up, people’s urgent needs are still immense, with impediments not being lifted quickly enough.
Since the ceasefire and as of this Monday, the UN and our partners have collected from Gaza’s crossings more than 37,000 metric tonnes of aid – mostly food. That’s according to the UN 2720 Mechanism, which does not include bilateral donations and the commercial sector.
Entry continues to be limited to only two crossings, with no direct access from Israel to northern Gaza or from Egypt to southern Gaza. This is on top of certain items and NGO staff not being let in.
Our colleagues leading on the shelter response say that most displaced people remain in overcrowded makeshift sites – many of which were established spontaneously in open or unsafe areas. Hundreds of thousands of families face the onset of the rainy season without desperately needed protection from the elements.
Our partners working on shelter support say that once impediments are lifted, they have enough materials in the pipeline to meet most of the needs of nearly 1.5 million Palestinians requiring such assistance.
On the food front, there has been clear progress. Since the ceasefire, the World Food Programme has reached over one million people with food distributions, hot meals, bakery support, fortified snacks for children, expanded nutrition services, and digital cash assistance.
WFP expanded storage capacity to three warehouses, reopened key roads, and reinforced retail networks to sustain food assistance. The agency says that food has been delivered in all parts of Gaza.
UNIFIL
You will have seen the statement issued on Thursday by the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon in reaction to the latest Israeli airstrikes within UNIFIL’s area of operations in the southern parts of the country.
UNIFIL says that these airstrikes constitute clear violations of Security Council resolution 1701. They come as the Lebanese Armed Forces are undertaking operations to control unauthorized weapons and infrastructure in the south Litani area.
As you will recall, the cessation of hostilities agreement between Israel and Lebanon was reached a year ago. We continue to urge the parties to adhere to their obligations under resolution 1701 to avoid putting the current hard-won progress at risk.
Full Highlight: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date=2025-11-07
