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Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk Remarks to Human Rights Council Annual Panel on adverse impacts of climate change
“The climate crisis is a human rights crisis. Rising temperatures, rising seas, floods, droughts, and wildfires threaten our rights to life, to health, to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and much more. The heat wave we are currently experiencing here shows us the importance of adaptation measures, without which human rights would be severely impacted,” Türk said.
It is equally clear our current production and consumption patterns are unsustainable, and that renewables are the energy source of the future. Production capacity for renewables increased five-fold between 2011 and 2023.
“What we need now is a roadmap that shows us how to rethink our societies, economies and politics in ways that are equitable and sustainable. That is, a just transition. This shift requires an end to the production and use of fossil fuels and other environmentally destructive activities across all sectors - from energy to farming to finance to construction and beyond. This will be one of the greatest transformations our world has ever seen. And it has serious implications for human rights,” he said.
The High Commissioner stressed that if we don’t safeguard people’s lives, their health, their jobs and their future opportunities, the transition will replicate and exacerbate the injustices and inequalities in our world. The rich and powerful will benefit; the poor and vulnerable will lose out.
“Are we taking the steps needed to protect people from climate chaos, safeguard their futures, and manage natural resources in ways that respect human rights and the environment? Sadly, the evidence so far is that we are not – particularly in the energy sector,” he stated.
Türk noted that a just transition spans many areas, including financing, gender equality, peace and security, corporate responsibility and accountability. Respect for human rights must be a cross-cutting theme that unites all these areas.
The High Commissioner gave the following examples: First, development finance. Most international support for a just transition comes in the form of loans that can increase debt burdens for developing countries. Second, the gender gap in green and technological skills is growing. Women are less than one-third of the workforce in renewable energy sectors. Third, geopolitical competition among countries and companies is undermining rights and equity in the extraction of critical transition minerals. In some cases, including in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, competition over these minerals has fueled conflict. Fourth, corporate accountability for fossil fuel companies is utterly inadequate.
“Fossil fuel corporations perpetuate misinformation and disinformation and peddle false solutions and greenwashing that distract from continued damage. Polluters must pay. We must build on proposals, including the billionaire tax initiative, and the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, to make sure people and corporations that have caused and benefitted from planetary harm pay for it,” he said.
All States need to conduct impact assessments of their budgetary, investment and energy policies on the enjoyment of human rights and the environment. Fossil fuel subsidies need to be redirected towards renewable energy, sustainable food systems, and social safety nets, Türk added.
Policies need to be based on metrics that go beyond Gross Domestic Product, by measuring human development, equality, and environmental sustainability. This was part of the discussion of the Pact for the Future, the High Commissioner said.
“And regulations must protect people and nature from unprincipled corporate behavior. They should aim to reduce and eliminate discrimination and inequalities; and build systems and services that are inclusive and sustainable,” Türk said.
“Finally, a just transition – which is fundamental to humanity’s present and future wellbeing – requires solidarity, cooperation, and financial support for many developing economies. I hope all Governments represented here today will join forces to meet these urgent needs,” he concluded.
END
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STORY: “Polluters must pay,” UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk tells annual meeting on adverse impacts of climate change
TRT: 03:07
SOURCE: OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: English/ NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 30 June 2025- Geneva, Switzerland
SHOTLIST
- Exterior: Palais des Nations alley of flags
- Interior: Room 20
- SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: “The climate crisis is a human rights crisis. Rising temperatures, rising seas, floods, droughts, and wildfires threaten our rights to life, to health, to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and much more. The heat wave we are currently experiencing here shows us the importance of adaptation measures, without which human rights would be severely impacted.”
- Cut away: room 20
- SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: “What we need now is a roadmap that shows us how to rethink our societies, economies and politics in ways that are equitable and sustainable. That is, a just transition. This shift requires an end to the production and use of fossil fuels and other environmentally destructive activities across all sectors - from energy to farming to finance to construction and beyond. This will be one of the greatest transformations our world has ever seen. And it has serious implications for human rights.”
- Cut away: room 20
- SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: “Are we taking the steps needed to protect people from climate chaos, safeguard their futures, and manage natural resources in ways that respect human rights and the environment? Sadly, the evidence so far is that we are not – particularly in the energy sector.”
- Cut away: room 20
- SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: “Fossil fuel corporations perpetuate misinformation and disinformation and peddle false solutions and greenwashing that distract from continued damage. Polluters must pay. We must build on proposals, including the billionaire tax initiative, and the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, to make sure people and corporations that have caused and benefitted from planetary harm pay for it.”
- Cut away: room 20
- SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: “And regulations must protect people and nature from unprincipled corporate behavior. They should aim to reduce and eliminate discrimination and inequalities; and build systems and services that are inclusive and sustainable.”
- Cut away: room 20
- SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: “Finally, a just transition – which is fundamental to humanity’s present and future wellbeing – requires solidarity, cooperation, and financial support for many developing economies. I hope all Governments represented here today will join forces to meet these urgent needs.”
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
ends