Thank you very much for staying with us.
We have a lot of very distinguished guests today.
And I'm really, really happy to introduce you to Sung Ali, the IOM Deputy Director General for Management and Reforms.
Zoe is with me on the podium.
Madam, you are joining from Khartoum with very little connection time, so we will try to make the best out of it and maybe we will start hearing from you on the fragile conditions of growing returns to Sudan.
I'm speaking to you from Sudan today where families are making really difficult journeys home.
Nearly 4 million people have voluntarily returned to their places of origin, particularly to Aljazeera.
Actually currently I am in Aljazeera and Khartoum as well.
Many are returning because they believe security has improved.
Others are returning because life in displacement has become unbearable, because economic pressures also to reunite with families, or because conditions in neighbouring countries are increasingly hard.
These movements speak to the resilience and determination of Sudanese communities.
People actually I met, they want to rebuild, they want to return to their land, they want to come back to their home and their livelihoods.
But the reality many encounter upon arrival is very stark.
Returning home should mark the beginning of recovery, but in Sudan today it is often the beginning of another struggle for survival, survival.
Across the country, the impact of conflict remains severe.
I was in Sudan, I was in Khartoum yesterday and I saw large numbers of people are returning to areas where homes and critical infrastructure including water, health, electricity have been heavily damaged.
Host communities across the eastern and Northern Sudan, so that includes Casala, Jeddah, REF, Red Sea, Northern and River Nile States and these have carried much of this burden, welcoming displaced families while already facing economic hardship and climate related pressures.
This has stretched the available infrastructure almost to the limit.
So in Azazira, where I am sitting here today, it's also one of Sudan's most important agricultural regions.
Farmers are returning to fields, but where irrigation systems and equipment have been damaged, it's threatening livelihoods and food production at a critical moment for the country.
Without urgent investment to restore essential services and rebuild infrastructure and revive livelihoods, safe and sustainable returns are at serious risk.
At the heart of the crisis, nearly 12 million people fled heavily affected areas, while more than 4.5 million crossed into neighbouring countries.
Today, almost 9 million people remain internally displaced.
Through partnership with the Sudanese authorities and local actors, IOM is working to support communities beyond emergency relief toward recovery, resilience and stability.
This is in line with the UN Secretary General's Action Agenda on Internal Displacement.
But the scale of needs remains immense.
IOM has been able to reach 4 million people in Sudan alone with life saving humanitarian aid since 2023.
IOM released its 2026 Sudan Crisis Response Plan that six $670 million to respond to the rising needs.
As based on the IOM data, more than two million additional people are expected to return to Khartoum alone in 2026.
This is a pivotal moment for Sudan.
With sustained partnership, coordinated action and etiquette resources, return movements can become a pathway toward recovery and stability and not the beginning of another crisis.
Thank you very much, Madam, for this very important notes.
I'll open the floor to questions now in the room first, if I can see any end up no, let me see if there are questions on the platform, give you 1 moment.
So if this is the case, so do you want to add anything or?
Yeah, No, thank you very much except that we are open to questions.
If anyone would like to send some to me directly, then we can of course respond.
And I understand from the way that the notes of the Deputy Director, John has been distributed.
So you should have them in your mailbox.
Good luck for the continuation of your, of your mission in Sudan.
And I'd like now to move to our next speakers.
We will hear later on from IOM also on another subject, but I would like now to go to our next guests.
Lee, you, you want to come to the podium with your your invitees?
We have Kazumi Ogawa with us, the director of the UN Mine Action Service.
Please can you come to the podium and Ambassador Tobias privately, the Director of the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian, the Mining.
So we have we have with us also I think, you know, early Woodyear, I don't think I need to introduce you to him.
Every year we have the privilege to host in Geneva a very important here on this event.
Maybe I'll just say a couple of words.
And then we give Mr Pivitan, please.
Thank you so much for coming and for paying attention to us today.
So we're here to announce the 29th International meeting of Mine Action National directors and United Nations Advisors.
What it means is that for this week in Geneva, we have some 800 Mine Action specialists.
And Mine Action, of course, covers everything from IEDs to unexploded ordinance, explosive remnants of war.
And we have a specialist from, oh, I mean more than 80 countries, but of course, the almost 60 countries that are contaminated, we do have people here from those countries.
So we are open for business with the media and we very much would love to share stories.
What's going to happen this week?
As of today, we're just going to announce the national directors meeting.
And on Thursday, the Under Secretary General for the Department of Peace Operations, who's also here for this meeting, will be giving a press conference at noon.
And on Friday morning, we will bring our mine action specialists to a press conference at 9:30 AM in this room.
That time we would be able to go into depth.
The topics we will be highlighting to begin with will be the occupied Palestinian territory, Sudan, as we just heard about.
We'll also have our specialist from Sudan, the person who runs our programme and is trying to make it possible for people to return to Khartoum in other parts of the country safely, since there's an enormous amount of unexploded ordnance in that country.
And we'll also be highlighting Ukraine.
So if you want to go in more in depth on any of those topics, please do.
In the media advisory that we sent out, we gave you the names and numbers of people you can reach to.
If you want to have an interview, a bilateral interview, come to the CICG, which is where the national directors meeting is taking place.
And with that said, as they say in West Africa, if the head is in the room, you don't put the hat on the knee.
So allow me to hand over to my director, Kazumi Ogawa, the director of Unmask Over.
Thank you very much, Lee.
I started in February as the the director of the UN Mine Action Service.
It's very nice to meet you and I look forward to working with you in the years to come.
I'm here, very pleased to be here with my counterpart from the Geneva.
Sorry, I want, I know it as GICHD, the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Divining Ambassador Tobias Privatelli.
As Lee has mentioned, tomorrow we're kicking off the 29th edition of the meeting of National Directors and UN Advisors.
The meeting is going to be opened by the Under Secretary General for Peace Operations, Mr Jean Pierre Lacroix, and the keynote is being given by Miss Miriam Bukhar Hassan.
She's the First United Nations global advocate for peace.
She was appointed last year by the Secretary General.
She is, as you may know, a poet, poetess, a a young person who's from the Borno State in Nigeria, which as you may know is a region that suffers inordinately from the threat of unexploded ordinance.
And so we thought it would be very appropriate for her to address the 800.
It's, I think it's more like 1000 people that have registered the AD governments that will be represented at the meeting tomorrow.
We would like to invite you for the opening if you are interested.
I think that it would be very inspirational, very interesting.
And that would be at the CICG from 9:00 to 10:00.
The opening, the theme of this year's national directors meeting, the NDM, we call it, is one humanity.
It encapsulates the idea that we, you know, all of humanity, we're all in this together.
As we heard from the deputy director general of IOM just now as well, Sudan is one of those countries that's very much affected, particularly as people are trying to make their way back after the conflict.
And so we for for us, I think that are in the privileged position of being in Geneva or New York.
You know, it's our our responsibility to push and uphold international humanitarian standards, international human rights law to rid this world of anti personal landmines and ensure that explosive hazards following conflict are cleared before civilians.
And often it's it's children become victims.
So this is the 29th meeting of this this of the national directors.
It was 29 years ago that Lady Diana walked through the minefields of Angola.
The reason I mentioned that is that that served to bring international attention to the threat of landmines and unexploded ordnance.
And it was, you know, it was, I think perhaps fortunate timing, but it was very much one of the, the triggers that that the same that same year in December, we had the Convention on the prohibition of the use, stockpiling, Production and transfer of anti personal minds and, and their discussion in on their destruction.
It's the anti personal mind ban convention that was signed in Ottawa of that year.
It's one of the most successful disarmament treaties in history.
Unfortunately, I think as you know, you know, one of the things that we're looking at is a gradual withdrawal from the treaty that that there are the current, I think global state of affairs is, is making it easier for states parties to, to start withdrawing.
And so one of our responsibilities really is to say, you know, to hold the line.
You may have heard the Secretary General mention this in on Mine Action Day on April the 4th, but really to to hold the line and to encourage states to continue to respect their obligations under under that treaty.
The meeting itself that we're having tomorrow has become a global mine action summit.
It's important for us because it brings together mine action advisors, the private sector, international NGOs, the UN advisors all together to talk about the different innovations, the different practises.
As you can imagine, you know, something that's successful in the Philippines might well be successful in South Sudan.
And so really it's an opportunity for those practitioners to to talk about the technology, the know how not necessarily even cutting edge technology, but really kind of old school practises as well that might save lives.
As Lee has mentioned, there is a list circulated of national directors and of our UN advisors that are free to open to, to, to speaking with each one of you if you want a flavour of what's happening in the field.
You know, they are your best sources of information.
So I would encourage you and I'd be very happy if you would like to speak to them.
Just to reiterate a little bit looking over the horizon for this week, the Under Secretary General for Peace Operations, Mr Lacroix, who also, by the way, chairs our interagency working group on mine action.
He's going to be addressing this forum on Thursday.
And then on Friday, we also have a press briefing with and speaking about riding the occupied Palestinian territory and Ukraine of exploded ordnance and landmines.
So that will be more voice voices from the field as well.
With that, let me hand over with my apologies for taking so much time to, to the Ambassador.
Thank you so much, director, and welcome to the mine action world.
I'm happy and looking forward to our corporation.
The NDM is a long tradition and national directors meeting and this year it takes place in a particularly difficult environment.
As Kasumi said, we see more mine contaminated land, more explosive ordinance being used, more victims.
We see more pressure on the international terrorian law, in particular the Ottawa and Oslo Convention, and we also see more pressure on funding.
Let me give you a few numbers today.
We think that more than 100 million people across over 60 countries live with the threat of land mines and other explosive ordinance.
These weapons kill and injure every single day.
The estimation is that in 2024 alone, over 6200 casualties took place from land mines, cluster munition and other explosive remnants of war.
The point is that today 90% of the victims are civilians, half of the victims are children.
What we did as Geneva Centre in close cooperation with En Mas in the last 30 years, I would say, is regulating standardising methods in the mine action field.
So luckily today we see much less the miners being killed and military experts being killed, but still incredibly and shockingly high number of civilians being killed.
In Syria, we see incidents almost every day, with more than 1600 people killed and injured in 2025 alone in Ukraine.
In Ukraine we have the largest contaminated territory with 132,000 square kilometres contaminated potentially by land mines and other explosive ordinance.
In the frontline regions of Ukraine, 38% of agricultural enterprises report contamination by landmines.
Another important context, of course, is Gaza.
In Gaza, the use of explosive weapons to place in populated areas, in urban areas and recovery will take a lot of time and will be technically complex.
So today is the global gathering, it starts tomorrow it starts the global gathering of the NDM where all the experts, directors, national mine action centres are discussing methods, approaches, solutions to that difficult situation in which we are.
I would like to highlight a few key questions and subjects which will be discussed.
We will have panels and discussions on urban environments, post conflict reconstruction, the protection of civilians in active conflicts like Ukraine and Syria, Gaza.
We'd also like to speak this year particularly about the climate impacts of contamination.
Then we will speak about innovation, technologies, data and also innovation in financial mechanisms, which is particularly important.
And then of course we look into the long term management, what happens after the conflict, residual contamination, how this can be treated.
I think the message is clear, the problem is growing and the response must evolve and getting more modern at the same time.
So our centre, in cooperation with UNMAS and many other partners, support the trenching of systems, standards, information management, the mapping of the problem and the action we are undertaking and discussing are not just about clearing land from mines, it's about making recovery possible.
It's about making the safe returns of displaced people possible and in that regard, we are part of broader, I would even say, peace building efforts.
Thanks for your interest.
We open to your question and we'll have a technical briefing on Friday morning.
Thank you very much to the three of you.
Let me see if there are any questions in the room.
Nina, AFP, Yeah, thank you very much for the briefing.
I was wondering among participants at the if you're also going to have participants from the countries who are withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention and if you could talk about how what messages you might have for them there.
This is indeed the global gathering of all states affected by the problem and all donors.
So everybody is invited and usually all the states participate.
There is a separate format.
The meeting of the state's parties of the Ottawa Convention takes usually place in December, but this format today or which starts tomorrow is not limited to those who signed the Ottawa Convention.
Other questions for our colleagues in the room.
Let me see if there's any on the platform.
John Terro Costas Francois, Catherine de Lancet.
I was wondering, Sir, you mentioned the civilian casualties.
Do you have any insights on the total casualties, including combatants who have been injured or killed by mines or clusters or other munitions?
The numbers for 2025 are not yet published.
But for 2024, it's the 6200 casualties, which include injured and killed people.
And they also include, I mean, they also include militaries, but 90% of the people including that number are civilians.
Other questions in the room or on the platform, I don't see other hands up.
So thank you very, very much.
As Mrs Ogawa said, you are welcome to the opening and to the closing ceremony without more registration than that with your with your UN media badge and we will be happy to see you again during this week.
As I, as he said 12:00 Thursday, USG Lacroix, we'll talk to you and then Friday morning we have sent you the list of the speakers at the 9:30 press conference that will be managed by my colleague.
Have a very good meeting and I like to ask IOM to come back to the podium again as Zoe has brought us another of her colleagues, Maria Moita, the IOM Director of the Department of Monetary Response and Recovery.
You want to see the close to her as you like.
So, so thank you very much Mrs Morita for being here.
You have you are launching actually the global overview of migration routes and missing migrants project families report.
So we will hear about this and I'll open the floor to question then.
Today, IOM is releasing new data that highlights a deeply concerning reality.
In 2025, nearly 8000 migrants were reported dead or missing worldwide while attempting to reach safety or pursue a better future.
Asia recorded the highest number of deaths on record, including hundreds of Rohingya and Afghans, underscoring that people fleeing conflict and persecution continue to face life threatening risks.
These figures reflect A collective failure to prevent avoidable tragedies.
Behind these numbers are families left searching for answers, families living with uncertainty, grief, and in many cases without ever knowing what happened to their loved ones.
IOM, through the Missing Migrant Projects, estimates that since 2014, at least 340,000 family members have been directly affected by migrants deaths.
Many continue to endure profound psychological, social, legal and economic hardship.
At the same time, migration dynamics are evolving.
IMS global overview of migration routes shows that pressures have not eased and routes keep changing.
Conflict, climate shocks, shifting labour demands and policy measures are reshaping how and where people move.
While some routes have seen fewer arrivals, journeys have become longer, more fragmented and increasingly dangerous.
In some regions, migrants are taking greater risks to avoid enforcement measures.
In others, they are becoming stranded in border areas with limited access to protection, shelter or healthcare.
A decrease in arrivals in one location does not mean fewer people are moving, nor does it mean that migration has become safer.
In many cases, the risks are simply becoming less visible.
Yet the human cost remains preventable.
Deaths and disappearance continue to occur across migration routes worldwide, on the on land and at sea.
This is why data is critical.
It allows us to identify where risks are increasing, where lives are being lost, and where urgent action is needed to prevent further tragedy.
It also helps inform practical responses from life saving assistance and protection services to safer migration pathways and stronger cooperation between states.
As we approach the International Migration Review Forum next month, these findings serve as a clear reminder saving lives must remain a priority of migration governance.
What we need now is renewed commitment and concrete action to prevent deaths and disappearances, to support families and to invest in evidence based solutions that make site migration safer because behind every number is a human life and behind every missing migrants is a family.
Still waiting for answers.
Let me open the floor to questions in the room if any.
I was just wondering if you could give more comparisons, please.
8000 sounds like a lot, but how does it compare historically?
And I'm interested if you can just say if you could rank the most deadly routes.
I imagine the Mediterranean Central Med is amongst them, as well as crossings in Asia as you mentioned.
We have colleagues on the line that can give you some of this more detailed information.
I defer to them colleagues, if you give me the name.
Yeah, 8000 is indeed a huge number when we're thinking about people who have died.
However, it is a reduction from our previous total in 2024, which was 9197 people whose that's what we recorded.
And the reason for this reduction is that last year there was a growing trend of lack of information or accessible information for us.
And that is why a lot of debts couldn't be verified.
Actually, we have in addition of the 7900, another 1500 which couldn't be verified, but which we believe happened about the route.
Can you answer or another colleague?
Yeah, Yeah, I can take that as well.
So just to confirm, it was whether the central Mediterranean was still the deadliest root cut, right.
Sorry, I was confirming if that was a question, which were the most deadliest, if you could give us the top three maybe.
So the deadliest route at sea continues to be the central Mediterranean like every every year.
However, as we mentioned, Rohingya deaths in the Bay of Bengal also increased from previous years for the third year in a row.
And then at land, the deadliest routes have been those of Afghans, Afghan migrants trying to to flee Afghanistan.
I was interested in what you said about not being able to get the information and the 1500 you think died, but you don't know is that governments thwarting your requests.
Can you give us more information on that?
Of course, not specifically so our data comes from many different sources, including governments, but just in general 2025 SA decrease of the information that is available coming from different actors given mostly well, it also related to the funding cuts to humanitarian aid and and related projects.
So, for example, in the Central Mediterranean, there was less humanitarian aid taking place.
Therefore, there was also less people observing what was happening.
But that's not just a certain, not a trend in the Central Mediterranean, but really all across the world.
We conducted really extensive research for each of these cases.
However, they didn't meet the minimum, the minimum standards to be added to our to our database.
You actually just answered my my question there.
If, if there are any steps you're trying to do to compensate for this lack of information or to address it in the in the future.
So one of the one of the solutions that we are trying to implement given this lack of information is also to utilise the information available to come up with more accurate, more accurate description of what's actually happening.
That is why we came up with this new estimate of the number of families of missing migrants who are who are affected.
So this is the first time that IOM releases an estimate of the number of of families affected.
And this was done using our data of the missing Migrants project using statistical methods to to quantify the the the size of the household.
And therefore come to this estimate, which I would like to to say also that it's a conservative estimates.
These 340,000 people affected by migrant deaths is a conservative estimate.
And we believe that the actual number is much higher.
I see you have put your mic on but we can't hear you.
About the Americas, yeah.
Yes, indeed, there was a big decrease in the number of deaths and disappearances we recorded in the Americas.
It's actually 2025 was the lowest number since we started recording in 2014.
There are two reasons for this decrease.
One is definitely related to the decrease of migrant movements, especially northbound.
It decreased significantly all across the the continent.
But then it's also this lack of information that that we have or lack of access to information, lack of capacity to document these debts that we have faced in the in the region.
So also related to to the funding cuts that that we have faced as an agency.
But yeah, so part of it is, is related to the to the change of movements.
However, this does not mean that migrant migration has become safer in the region.
We're still seeing migrant deaths occur all across the region.
And the fact that maybe we're less able to document them right now doesn't mean that they're not happening.
So we would also like you to encourage to take these figures with a pinch of salt.
Information and data so please do come to the communications department if we can help you with any figures on your stories because that is a resource we're very keen to promote thank you thank you so thank you very much Mrs marita and and also I would like to thank Andrea that has answered all these questions I I sorry I see a hand up Isabel is that for our IOM colleagues FA Information and data so please do come to the communications department if we can help you with any figures on your stories because that is a resource we're very keen to promote.
FA yes, yes, sorry I couldn't raise my hand before about what was I just mentioned on the American situation in the Americas and do you have information on you mentioned the decrease of movements.
Is that especially because of the the decrease of movements in the Darien gap in in Central America going north and what can if you have some also in a separate question is on you have some estimates on how, how how many crossings were irregular crossings were in from Mexico to the US?
So there I will try to be brief, but Full disclosure, I was just the director, regional director in Latin America and the Caribbean.
So I have a bit knowledge in this topic.
There's a few things that have led to the dramatic change in the migration flows in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The first one being the great change in migration policies by the US administration and the closure of the southern border.
This meant that we have seen a very, very significant decrease of migration flows to the north of the continent.
We that translates like a 98% of decrease in the Darien, the crossings in the Darien.
This reflects, of course, what we've been saying here, that although this is the reality, there's a huge decrease.
There's still a lot of migration movements across the region, but not necessarily what we were seeing until last year.
We see more people now going southbound.
There's a lot of people leaving Mexico.
The situation in Mexico is very dire for migrants and people are returning either S either home or seeking another country to establish themselves as they find opportunities to be seen.
What the continuation of these changes, how it will affect the migration patterns in the region as the political situation evolves as well.
In terms of figures, we can, I will take the offer from Zoe.
Please contact us, our team and we can give you, I don't want to say something that it's not correct now.
So please do contact us and we will provide more accurate figures what this exactly looks like.
Thank you again to Mrs Moita and Zoe and to Andrea for answering the question of our journalist.
And let me now go to our next speaker.
We have the pleasure to welcome Telis Carbayo Rezende, who is connecting from Paris, Eunice from the UNESCO in Paris.
We are having it's, it's very kind of you to come in and and speak about this report today press in Geneva because this is an important report.
It's the first time that you launch a, a report on the natural sites, isn't it?
So thank you very much for this and I'll give you the flow for your remarks.
Yeah, good morning and thank you very much for for being here and giving us the opportunity to present the results of this report.
So it is my pleasure today to present the main findings of this first global assessment of UNESCO designated sites, bringing together wall heritage sites, biosphere reserves and global geoporks.
So this report brings encouraging news.
UNESCO designated sites are delivering real, measurable results both for people and nature.
So this assessment is the result of a major global scientific effort that brought together more than 20 leading research institutions worldwide.
And it combines decades of data into the first harmonised global analysis of UNESCO designated sites as an interconnected network integrating scientific knowledge with the expertise and stewardship of indigenous peoples and local communities.
So across the more than 2260 sites covering an area of 13,000,000 square kilometres, so that's roughly the size of China and India combined, these places are supporting the livelihoods of around 900 million people.
So that's about 10% of the world's population.
And this is not a marginal effort, it's a real an impact at the global scale.
So these sites are living landscapes where ecosystems, cultures and economies are deeply interconnected, shaped over generations of interaction between people and nature, and this is reflected in their cultural dimension.
So they continue to protect biodiversity, regulate climate, sustain cultures and support communities.
And actually one of the key findings of this result is the fact that wildlife populations in these sites have remained stable on average, while globally it has they have decreased by 73% since 1970.
And we see this in very concrete terms, for instance, in the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
And so long term conservation efforts combined with strong community engagement have enabled the mountain guerrilla populations to recover even in a highly challenging context of civil unrest.
And these sites are also critical for climate regulation.
So forests within UNESCO designated sites absorb around 15% of the net carbon absorbed by forests globally.
So it really highlights their essential role in mitigating climate change.
So the message is simple.
No, these, these sites are delivering tangible results despite the the the growing pressures and this model no is working and it works because these sites are well equipped.
So they combine science, strong governance and the knowledge and stewardship of indigenous peoples and local communities.
So they are not just protected areas, they are leaving working landscapes.
And this leads to a second key message of these reports, no.
So these sites are the proof that people and nature can go together, no.
So too often we frame development and conservation as competing priorities.
But this global network shows the opposite.
When managed well, they reinforce each other, no.
So human well-being and Environmental Protection are advanced hand in hand.
And this is reflected, for instance, in in the the role of indigenous peoples and local communities.
So at least one quarter of UNESCO designated sites overlap with indigenous lands, so rising to nearly half in some regions such as Latin America.
So this really highlights their essential role as stewards of biodiversity, knowledge and cultural heritage.
However, behind this positive story comes a clear warning, no?
So the pressures are intensifying, especially from climate change.
So if we fail to act, more than one in four sides could reach critical tipping points by 2050, such As for instance, forests becoming carbon sources, glaciers disappearing completely, as well as coral reef collapse.
So this can have serious consequences for the ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.
And every fraction of a degree matters.
So just if we avoid warming of 1° could have the number of sites facing a major disruption.
So while the the the resilience of these sites is strong, it is not guaranteed.
And This is why the report highlights also some clear pathways to to, to action.
And these include, for instance, strengthening integrated management, restoring ecosystems, improving monitoring across ecological and cultural dimensions, and reinforcing cooperation and knowledge exchange.
But first and foremost, investment.
We now have a a solid global evidence that investing in these sites delivers results.
It strengthens resilience, protects biodiversity and supports livelihoods.
Yet today, many sites continue to operate with limited and fragmented resources, while the the the the pressures are continue to grow.
So the message is clear here, we need to scale up investment, financial, technical and political.
Because investing in these sites is not just about protecting exceptional places.
No, it is also investing in proven solutions.
Solutions that can help address climate change, biodiversity loss, and sustainable development together.
So, in closing, this report gives us a reason for optimism.
It shows that resilience is possible.
It shows that people and nature can coexist and thrive together.
And it shows that when we invest wisely, we get real results.
But it also makes clear that now it's really time for, for, for action, because these sites are, are not just heritage, you know, from the past, they are really foundations for our future.
That is incredibly interesting.
I'll open the floor to questions now, if any.
Just just one thing I've got in the chat, the availability of the report, I'm not sure we've been able to distribute it to the journalist here.
So I don't know if you may either send us and we will distribute it or distribute the link yourself to the material.
Yeah, let me see if there are any, any specific questions.
So that means you've been extremely clear.
And again, if we can, if you can distribute the the material, that would be really useful for our journalists here.
Thanks again and bravo for this, for this interesting report.
So let me go now to my left.
Thomas has joined me on the podium to tell us a little bit more about the resource management.
Thank you, Alessandra, and good morning, everybody.
Resource availability and energy security are increasingly high on the political agenda of of excuse me.
Of particular note are critical minerals recently discussed by the UN Security Council and a priority of the French Presidency of the G7.
Demand for these minerals continues to grow rapidly.
As I'm sure you know a few figures on that.
We have expected increases of five for lithium from today to 2040, a doubling for graphite and nickel, rising by 50 to 60% for cobalt and rare earth elements and 30% for copper.
And they are IEA projections.
So the UNECE Resource Management week taking place on the 27th of April to the 1st of May next week.
Here in the ballet, we'll highlight tools and strategies for resource management in the energy transition with the aim of supporting energy security, affordability and sustainability.
Now, under this week, we gather a number of UNEC expert bodies.
Firstly, Expert Group on Resource Management, which is responsible for the UN Framework Classification for resources and UN Resource Management System.
Just to note that these are tools that are increasingly used worldwide, stipulated in the EU Critical Raw Materials Act, adopted and integrated in the resource management system of the African Union Commission, and with nations including China, Australia, Ukraine and India aligning their national systems with with this classification system.
Then we have the Group of Experts on Coal Mine Methane and Just Transition, which will showcase guiding principles for Just Transition and a collection of best practises.
I've just shared with you this morning a press release on this new resource.
Then we'll have the group of experts on gas which will examine the involving role of gas including bio gases and hydrogen as energy systems face ongoing supply and security challenges.
Reminding you on this that we have a special press conference this week, so ahead of Resource Management Week this Thursday, 23rd of April on critical minerals, myths and realities.
And our Director of Sustainable Energy, Dario De Guti will be there to answer all your questions and try and bring a bit of clarity on these issues, which we see a lot in the news.
There's a lot of hype and he will be able to to shed some light on some of those.
I will just mention briefly that on a separate note, this week in Astana, Kazakhstan, UNECE is participating in the regional Ecological Summit for Central Asia, a delegation led by the Executive Secretary, Tatiana Molchan.
And this will kick off in a high level session, the original environmental performance review.
So on all of these topics, of course, we remain available for your questions and we look forward to welcoming you on Thursday, as many of you as possible, 10:30 to 11:30.
That's a hybrid press conference here.
Thank you very much, Thomas.
Thanks for all this information.
Let me see if there's any hands up in the room or on the platform.
And yes, of course, yeah, I don't need to re announce it.
1030 here and then it was a noon USG lacroir.
So let's go to the last button.
Definitely not least speaker of this morning Claire, I see here you've connected Claire Nullis, WMO Yes.
Tomorrow, the 22nd of April is Mother Earth Day.
To mark the event, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN and the World Meteorological Organisation are issuing a new report on extreme heat and agriculture.
This sort of focuses on the impact, the challenges of our changing climate and in particular, you know, more intense and extreme heat on Agri food systems.
FAO in Rome is is taking the lead on this.
I know that the report is having just some last minute tweaks to it, but we hope to be able to send it out the report and the press release that this was at this afternoon.
So you do get do get it a little bit ahead of ahead of the day.
If you've got any questions, if you need any interviews, please just contact me and I can connect you either with experts at WMO or put you in touch with colleagues at FAO in Rome.
So that's the first item.
Moving on, we're getting quite a lot of media enquiries, immediate interest about reports of a looming El Nino event.
As you all know, El Nino has a big impact on temperatures, on precipitation patterns, umm, umm, you know, and a very big impact on, on climate around the world.
In response to those questions, we will be issuing, umm, hopefully on Thursday, a sort of news piece which includes the latest findings from WMO's global seasonal climate update.
This is product which we issue monthly.
It looks at, you know, temperature predictions for the, for the coming months.
So hopefully that will be with you by Thursday, the 23rd of April.
And again, if you need interviews, please, please just let me know.
I know that, you know, there is the UNECE press conference.
There's lots of other media events looking ahead to next week, UMM, WMO and the European Copernicus Climate Change Service will be issuing the State of the European Climate Report 2025.
This is a very, very detailed report with a lot of information on climate, biodiversity in in Europe in 2025.
There will be an embargoed press conference on Monday, Monday the 27th at 1:00 PM Geneva time with a number of speakers, including WMO Secretary General Celeste Salo.
We sent out the invitation to that, I think it was earlier this week.
If you haven't got it, please let me know.
You need, it's a hybrid press conference.
You need to register for it.
It's been hosted by Copernicus Climate Change Service.
If you didn't get it and you are interested in attending, you need interviews, please, please contact me and I will connect you.
The report itself is being launched on the 29th, the 29th of April.
And I gather from my colleagues at Copernicus, they're hoping to send out the embargoed materials sometime later this week.
If you've got any questions, please feel free to.
Thank you very much, Claire.
No hands in the room on the platform neither.
So thank you very much for all these details.
You follow up with information and thanks for the information on the press conferences.
So I am now left to give you a few announcements on my side.
First of all, that's so that's, that's really something I'd start with this because it's it doesn't happen very often.
Today and tomorrow, candidates for the position of the Secretary General will take part in interactive dialogues in which they will outline their vision for the UN and answer questions for member States and civil society.
This is happening, as I said, today and tomorrow.
It is webcast on UN Web TV.
The calendar is the following.
Michelle Bachelet will speak at 10 AM New York time until 1:00 PM and Rafael Grossi from, well, that's going to be late.
But from 3:00 to 6:00 PM on Tuesday, today and on Wednesday, tomorrow, Rebecca Greenspan will speak first at 10 AM New York time and Macky Sall 3:00 PM New York time.
The dialogues will be chaired by the president of the General Assembly and Elena Berbock.
And I understand she's also giving a press conference in New York that will probably surely be also webcast.
So that is, that is quite something for us.
As you know, I think that US dialogues where in 2016 or so it's, it's, it's an important, I'm not sure about the date, but definitely it is important.
If you want to follow this, please do.
I also have a couple of information.
The committees, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discriminations, reviewing this afternoon the report of Uzbekistan and the Committee against Torture has started now to examine the report of Gabon, which will be followed by Pakistan.
The Racial Discrimination Committee after the Uzbekistan report will look at booking a Faso and Cuba.
And I think that's all I had for you were spoken about the press conferences.
And yes, two more language, they are coming up this week on the 23rd English Language Day and Spanish Language Day.
So we will send you some statements about this.
If there are no other questions for me, I'll thank you very much for following this briefing and I'll see you on Friday.
