Very good morning and thank you for joining us here at the United Nations office at Geneva Today, Tuesday, the 27th of October.
We have, I'm very pleased to introduce 2 colleagues from the World Meteorological Organisation.
This is part of the regular briefing.
We're calling this a prequel, but we have Miss Coe Barrett on my left, who is WM OS, Deputy Secretary General.
And just to the left of Miss Barrett is Oksana Tarasova, who is WMO Senior Scientific Officer.
And of course, Claire, as you know well, is also joining us here for this prequel, which will address Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.
But over to Miss Barrett.
Afterwards, we'll have a slide presentation that Miss Tarasova will speak to and then we'll take your questions.
But without further ado, Miss Barrett.
Good morning and thank you for joining our press briefing.
So the World Meteorological Organisation today releases its annual Greenhouse Glass Bulletin for 2025 and once again we are reporting that levels of long lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are at record levels.
The big three are carbon, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide and since the 1960s growth rates have of CO2 have tripled.
When the bulletin was first published in 20 O 4, the annual level of carbon dioxide was 377.5 parts per million.
In 2025, it was 426.8 parts per million.
Data that we have from individual monitoring stations in WM, OS Global Atmosphere Watch show that CO2 levels continue to rise in 2026.
Every additional part per million matters because it traps additional heat.
In effect, we are supercharging the ocean and the atmosphere.
That means that heat waves, tropical cyclones and rain storms are intensifying faster than our historical baselines prepared us for.
The WMO Bulletin reports on measured greenhouse gas concentrations, the amount of gas that accumulates in the atmosphere, and not new annual emissions.
About half of the total CO2 emitted each year remains in the atmosphere and the rest is absorbed by land, ecosystems and oceans.
The rate of increase in CO2 between 2004 and 2025 was above the 10 year average, but slightly lower than the exceptional surge we saw between 2023 and 2024.
The more modest growth rate reflects recovery of the land carbon sink in 2025 after the strong 2023-2024 El Nino, which impacted these land carbon sinks through more drought, drier vegetation and more wildfires.
And this is important because the exceptionally strong El Nino in 2026 right now sets the stage for another surge in CO2 levels.
The risk of reduced CO2 uptake by a warming ocean are also increasing.
I'd like to move now from carbon dioxide, the most abundant Long live gas, to gases, which are present in much lower concentrations but are of potential concern.
Sulphur hexofloride is closely related to electricity production and distribution and has been rising over the past three decades because of the switch to global electrification.
Sulphur hexafluoride concentrations in 2025 have increased by 249% relative to 1995 levels.
They are measured in parts per trillion, not million.
So why should we be concerned?
Because SF 6 has an atmospheric lifetime of up to 3000 years, its global warming potential is more than 24,000 times that of CO2.
The energy transition is essential and welcome, but as with every transition, it has to be done in a smart way and informed by environmental observations.
And This is why WM OS Global Atmosphere Watch and the annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin is so vital, because it coordinates and collects these observations which take the pulse of our planet.
I now hand over to Senior Scientific Officer Oksana Tarasova, who can present the report to you in more detail.
Oksana, thank you very much.
Can we go to the next slide please?
In the report, we provide the information about the global average levels of three main greenhouse gases.
As you can see from the stable in 2025, all three main greenhouse gases reached new highs with levels 53% above pre industrial for CO2167, percent above pre industrial for methane and 26% above pre industrial for neutral oxide.
The growth rate for CO2 was higher than 10 year average, while it was slightly lower for methane and comparable for neutral oxide.
As you can see on this plot, since we started observations within the Global Atmosphere Watch programme of the World Meteorological Organisation, the curve of CO2 is continue increasing and we see just yet another increase.
The problem with CO2 is that it accumulates in the atmosphere and stays there for the very long time.
So every single molecule which you put now will hang with us for over 1000 years.
As we've seen in the previous El Nino years, the growth rate of CO2 peaks when we have the stronger linear events like in 1998, 2015 and 2023-2024.
Nevertheless, despite the fact that 2025 was not a linear year rather than linear year, the growth rate was higher than any previous La Nina year and it was comparable with the earlier El Nino years, which means that the capacity of the system, a natural system to deal with greenhouse gases with carbon dioxide, which we put in the air is diminishing.
What is important to understand is that when we look at the whole picture and impact of greenhouse gases on climate, we express it in terms of radiative forcing or simply speaking the heating which the greenhouse gases put in the atmosphere.
And what we can see is that across all the greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide is the key greenhouse gas.
Since pre industrial it provided 66% of contribution into global warming and the impact of CO2 from 19 from 1990 also has substantially increased with CO2 accounting for 81% of increase.
The total increase in radiative forcing since 1990 which is when we already knew and understood that greenhouse gases have negative impact on climate.
We can see that despite of that the forcing by oil gases increased by 56%.
So we've done a massive amount of warming just within last three years.
We can see the same pattern in the levels of two other main greenhouse gases, methane and neutrals oxide.
These gases also continue rising, though we need to understand that are in the case of methane, about 35% of methane is coming from natural sources and 65% are coming from anthropogenic sources.
And those natural sources of methane are very sensitive to climate change.
We've seen a lot of variability in the growth rate, which was also driven by a linear and linear evidence.
In the case of nitrous oxide, it's about 65% of the sources which are coming from from natural sources.
And the impact of nitrous oxide is also extremely strong and it has 120 years lifetime.
The gas which is very interesting and which we highlighted this year is related to electrification.
The sulphur hexofluoride is used in the energy electricity transition systems and what we observe is that within within last 30 years the concentration in the atmosphere tripled.
The problem with this gas that it's, we call it one of the forever gases, the one which stays in the atmosphere over 3000 years, which is 24,000 times more powerful when each single molecule of CA two.
We need to take care of this gases because everything we do should have the cheques and balances what happens with the system natural systems as the impacts can linger for a very long time.
Next slide, just to conclude the presentation, I would like to stress that all information which is presented here is based on a real world measurements.
So it's not a statistical or statistical assessment or modelling or any kind of assumptions.
Best information is coming from the observations in real atmosphere, which are coordinated by the World Meteorological Organisation with about 180 stations that measures CO2 directly in the air, 172 stations for methane and 124 station for neutral oxide.
Thank you both very much.
Miss Barrett and Miss Tarasova, let's take questions starting for any possible questions in the room before we go on.
Yes, Isabel from Spanish News Agency.
I, I would like to know a little bit more on this gas that is related to energy transition.
Could it be more dangerous that the CO2 in in in the long term and accelerate the climate change?
At the current level, it is still are at a very small concentration.
So we are talking about carbon dioxide which is pots per million.
So it's a number of the molecule per million molecule of here of here for SS6 we are talking about pots per trillion which is kind of A2 orders of magnitude smaller.
What is concerning is the rate of increase if it I mean if you look at the plot the the concentration tripled just within within 30 years.
And given that the the amitrification is happening and growing exponentially because availability of renewable resources and when you when you use a renewable resources there is intermittency.
So you need to put a very good distribution system the end, but actually it can be pretty dangerous.
I mean, not at the level of CO2, but the the importance of SF6 is increasing.
Yeah, just to say that I think the energy transition is positive news and it is happening.
But as with any transition, it has to be done in a smart way to avoid any negative side effects.
And it's our understanding that there are options available to address this challenge.
And one of the values of being able to observe the atmosphere directly is that we can get kind of advanced notice of what we're seeing to help to inform changes that may need may be needed as we look at this positive transition.
Isabel, yeah, my follow up would be if as you said now is not a big problem.
But as I I was asking you said also at the long term, but what happened in combination of diesel gas in combination with CO2 in in the long term that would be a factor to accelerate climate change.
SF 6 is a greenhouse gas and it is a very powerful greenhouse gas, but it will take quite a long time for it to pick up with, with CO2.
But it does provide an addition to the to the radiative forcing still very minor amounts.
The main gas is and remains CO2, but it can potentially provide an impact in the future given that it stays in the atmosphere 3000 years.
Thank you both very much.
OK, we'll take a question online from Olivia Reuters.
Olivia mentioned that the exceptionally strong El Nino, so this year, heading into next year is setting the stage for another surge in CO2 levels.
I was just wondering if you could explain the science behind that and why that is and why perhaps this El Nino might be similar, but I would imagine perhaps even more challenging in comparison to what was noted in the report in terms of the El Nino of 2324.
The current elinear will absolutely have an impact on CO2.
And the reason why this happens is that about 21% of all CO2 which is emitted into the atmosphere due to human activities is taken up by terrestrial biosphere.
But we need to realise that terrestrial biosphere is not a mechanical pump.
And what happens during elinear is that there's a lot of droughts which are happening in the in the tropical areas where you usually have a lot of absorption of CO2 by the terrestrial biosphere.
What happens during the linear years is that you have a very prolonged droughts and when the terrestrial ecosystems get stressed then the respiration over goes over the photosynthetic activity.
So basically the plants are breathing more than the photosynthesizing, which means that they are emitting CO2 in the atmosphere rather than taking it up.
And the other factor is that during a linear years, we have very, very severe biomass burning happening in tropical areas, which is basically converting all the woods and all the all all the plants into the CO2 by just burning them.
So in this respect, we expect a very strong impact of this in linear of 26 and we will see next year what is the growth rate of CO2.
We've seen in the in the earlier analysis in some regions, for example, in Europe in 26, there was an extremely strong heat wave and there was an extremely strong drought.
France and Spain were burning like crazy.
And what we see in the early analysis is that uptake of CO2 this summer has been suppressed.
And it doesn't help if you have rains in in in autumn because the photosynthetic activity doesn't happen when you have no leaf on the tree.
Thank you very much, Robin.
There's a lot of people around the world who, who don't believe that global warming is happening, who, who don't look at your reports and who don't take notice of the rise in CO2.
So why should those people sit up and, and actually do take?
Why should they sit up and really take notice of these findings?
Well, I mean at WMO we believe that the information that we share is of importance to citizens around the world.
We can't actually control who uptakes our information or not, but we would say that we get very positive response to our no nonsense observations based information sharing.
And and we think that it does have real value both to the regular citizen but also to policy makers in terms of actions that can be taken based on this information to actually change or adjust the trajectory for climate action.
I can also add that what is what is important to understand is that even if you don't take into account this information, you see the changes which are happening in climate system.
You see that there are extreme Avians and you see that economic and and the life losses due to extreme Avians are increasing every year and they are at the at the level of hundreds of millions currently.
So it it doesn't matter if you believe in that or you don't believe in that, you may be hit by a heat wave and die of heat stroke knowing why the heat wave happened and trying to actually take an action and avoid this impact.
Or you can just ignore it and just, I don't know, be the victim of the stuff which is happening without your knowledge.
We in WMO are to produce a knowledge and inform everybody who is interested or not interested.
In what happens with the natural system to help you understand how to act in this situation.
So if I, if I, if I could just add that the, the World Meteorological Organisation will be issuing its State of the climate 2026 update for COP 31.
And that will, that will present in, in very, very clear terms, you know, the, the impact of these record levels of, of CO2 on the climate system and also the many, many extreme weather events that we, that we have seen.
We'll send you embargo to embargoed material and we'll probably have a press conference in this room.
It's good to think we'll watch that space.
Of course, Claire, before we current you as Kazmir.
Robin, you have a follow up, I believe.
Yeah, actually just following up on that in, in light of this bulletin, what would you like then the the negotiators at the COP summit to to really focus on?
Well, obviously the negotiators are not the main audience for this report, but we think that any kind of education is valuable for those who are using kind of a sense of what's happening in the real world to drive forward action.
Thank you very much, Kazmera, Geneva Solutions.
I thank you for this briefing on the Sulphur Hexafluoride.
Are there any hotspots or regions that are that you've noted particularly particular increases?
Yeah, if you could give some kind of geographic details.
In this report, we speak about the global averaged long lived grain *** gases.
The reason why we speak about global average is that these gases are very well mixed in the atmosphere.
So the gradients between different regions are very small.
Even that we are talking about annual increase of 2.8 parts per million at a level of 226.
So the geographical gradients in the concentration are small.
So the global average is representative.
What you are thinking of is probably distribution of emissions because emissions are regionally changing.
But in the report we are looking at the final distribution of the gas rather than at what is emitted at individual areas.
But within WMO, we're developing a system which is called Global Greenhouse Gas Watch, which will take this level of the concentrations and convert them into the gridded products with a resolution of 100 by 100 kilometres.
So as soon as the system becomes operational, we will see the dynamics by regions of the net fluxes, which is a combination of anthropogenic and natural and we will be able to say more precisely which regions were impacted during different years.
So we are working on that.
I just want to double check we have no further questions online nor in the room.
So on that note, I'd like to thank you both Miss Barrett and Miss Tarasova for this immensely important report, which has information that affects us all.
So thank you very much for joining us colleagues and and again to our guest and Clara as well.
I should note that the report and the press release and Miss Barrett's opening remarks are available online.
So we're going to take a small pause before we resume in a few minutes with our regular briefing.
So thank you again very much.
OK, let's let's move on to our first briefer.
Matt is here, of course, from your HCR, Philippe Leclerc, who's been here before, who's UNHCR Bureau Director for Europe.
And I'm very pleased to have you here to talk about situation in Ukraine.
And indeed we'll talk about the situation in Ukraine, but also the situation for Ukrainians abroad.
5.2 million refugees are still outside of Ukraine because of the persistence of of the attacks on Ukraine as we approach winter and that energy centres are being the target of attacks by the Russian forces.
And the strikes are every night, as you hear in Kiev, but also all over the country, in particular Odessa, Harkiv, Zaporigia, people are facing attacks which can target any part of the country.
Of course, the more intensified attacks along the front lines and Kiev, but no part of Ukraine is safe as it can be targeted by long range, long range missiles as well as drone attacks.
People are looking for safety, they're looking for heating as the winter approaches.
And it is important to remind the world, the donors, the individuals throughout the world of the need to support civilians who are attacked in in a daily manner, as well as the people who are outside and found refugee refuge outside of of the country.
This is also these attacks are not sparing humanitarians supporting the Ukrainian people along the front lines as since between 1st September and 14th October, 10 security incidents impacted UNHCR personnel or or partners including drone and aerial strikes on humanitarian teams, offices and warehouses.
So this puts United Workers who are obviously supporting civilians of attacked and and this should stopped and they should not be, they should be protected and not treated as as target.
As we see this these attacks continuing internal displacement is continuing.
Since January 26 / 136,000 ethiquis have been received at all UNACR supported transit centres, around 70% more than the nearly 80,000 who passed through these sites in 20 25.
Again, the attacks on this on on civilians are are growing.
We of course welcome any attempt to have ceasefire and as we speak in Oleshki, which is a a town near Herzon in a very difficult area along the the front lines, where between 1700 and 2000 persons are still living there.
A ceasefire has started at 3:00 AM Ukrainian time for a Russian time, which is supported by Dimitro Lubinetz, the Ombudsperson for Human rights in Ukraine, and Yan Alan Tratova, the Human Rights Ombudsperson for the Russian Federation.
The This initiative is welcomed and hopefully we'll support through support of humanitarian support to the population there, which has not been able to get such support, and the possibility of free movement enabling people who would wish to evacuate these areas to to do so.
Again, we will be following these developments during the day and the days to come as it is supposed to last for four days.
Again, we we welcome obviously such initiatives and hope that a prolonged ceasefire could be made for the rest of the country.
Just to to mention again the situation in asylum countries, an interagency survey that we released recently showed that 67% of adult Ukrainian refugees in nine countries were employed.
48% of the refugee children are enrolled in national schools.
It's particularly important as we speak that this sense of normalcy for those who have fled Ukraine, you know that temporary protection was extended for Ukrainian people living in EU member states, as well as other states like the UK, Moldova and Norway, so that legal continuity and stability can be provided until March 28.
It is important that beyond access to employment, which again, research that we did with Deloitte in Poland has shown that in 2025 the work of the refugees generated 2.4% of Poland's GDP, equivalent to some $24 billion.
So refugees are not only a burden, they are willing to be autonomous, they can contribute to the societies hosting them.
We welcome again the efforts that have been made by so many European states in in hosting them through temporary protection.
But after 4 1/2 more than four years of war, temporary protection is not enough and it is important to include the Ukrainians in national welfare support systems as the mental health situation of many of them is degrading and the support is not always provided.
So our message is, again, in view of the continued uncertainty and the many strikes that Ukrainians are a victim of in Ukraine, that the effort to support them both within and outside of Ukraine continues.
I'll stop there and have some questions if there are some.
Thank you so much, Philippe, for a very important briefing.
Of course, let's see who have question in the room, perhaps.
Isabel FA, Spanish news agency.
I would like to know if UNICR has any role in the evacuation of civilians in Oleski.
Well, not this unit here has a role in supporting the Ukrainian authorities and the Red Cross society in the evacuation of the more than 130,000 I mentioned this year.
Most of the support that UNHCR and its Ukrainian partners, NGOs are providing are in UNHCR and the NGO support centres.
When people are evacuated from the locations which are dangerous and are supported with psychological support, legal support, if they wish to stay, they will be provided with accommodation and again, psychological and medical support.
Because most of the people who are evacuated are people who are elderly, are often in need of a strong medical and psychological support.
They have been going through four years of of conflict and and their state is extremely weak for for many of them.
So this is the support that UNHCR with its partners and in very close coordination with the Ukrainian government, be at the provincial level or at national level provides.
Isabel Stabien, OK, question from Amazon, Reuters, Good morning.
You mentioned 10 security incidents between September and mid-october.
Didn't you put that in context for me?
And I'm wondering if you're mulling potentially moving warehouses or other facilities underground to protect from drone strikes?
Yes, thank you for your question.
As I was mentioning, we have seen a, a, a strong and increase of such attacks both on UNHCR warehouses as well as the partner warehouses.
3 NGOs supporting us have been attacked and actually this there have been some casualties with at least two persons of NGOs working with us who have died as a result of the attacks and five of them being severely wounded.
So we do see an increase of attacks on warehouses also on sometimes convoys or vehicles trying to reach places which are close to the front lines.
And this can affect United Nation agencies as OTSHA also some time ago.
But very much also the the NGOs working very close to the people and are doing an extraordinary work.
And even though they are affected by these attacks, as I said very severely with, with two persons who died and people wounded, this is not preventing them from continuing their work to have access to to people in need.
Thank you again, further questions, colleagues.
Yes, regarding to that subject, what do you think could be the the reason of these attacks which of course are prohibited by the by internal humanitarian international law, Is that to create fear to as you said to to prevent the humanitarian organisations to give help, aid to, to the civilians in Ukraine?
Well, first, as you have said, this is a clear violation of international humanitarian law to have of civilians targeted as well as humanitarian workers trying to help civilian people.
What we see over the last months is increased attacks, as I mentioned, to particular towns including Kiev, as well as to energy related centres, so which will provide support to the civilians during the winter.
So there seems to be a deliberate attack on such energy related centres and we know how important they are in a country which goes through very severe winters as we saw as we witnessed last year.
So these are widespread attacks over civilian targets that also affect humanitarian agencies as as a deliberate attack again from the Russian forces.
Just to follow up on on what you can do about this increase in attacks on your convoys and and warehouses and your partners.
What are you considering?
Could you move them underground?
Can you invest in armoured vehicles?
Or is this considered unacceptable for humanitarian groups?
Is it considered military?
How can you address this?
Well, as, as you you say, humanitarians are exposed to new situations of war as we witnessed them in in the Russian Federation, Ukrainian international conflict, where work to have access to civilians is more and more difficult.
So we are indeed reacting in enabling our partners to have armoured vehicles.
We are also making sure that bomb shelters are are produced in areas where civilians may be in need of evacuation, also possibly preventing risks of being attacked at the border if the situation would occur.
So UNICR and partners are looking at ways to secure.
I mean it, it will not be for security, that's obvious as I was mentioning.
But how do you deal with drones?
You know that if you have been to Ukraine, many of the roads reaching to people who are trapped are with Nets which prevent somehow direct attack from the drones.
It's a constant effort on the part of humanitarians to adapt to the new ways of conducting war.
As we have said, violations of international humanitarian law are taking place.
They should be denounced and prevented.
But in this context, it's also very important to continue being able to help people in need.
And it is our duty to make sure that we do not expose our personnel as well as the NGOs supporting us to a situation which would be too risky.
So it is a constant, again, effort on our side to adapt to this situation that and that's that's what I can, I can say.
And I'll just add that UNHCR plans to release a press release this week on preparations for the coming winter season, not just in Ukraine, in other countries in the global North as well.
But obviously, this is going to be a very a challenging winter ahead in Ukraine and a very important one to to raise advocacy around, but also to raise money for the people in that country who are obviously suffering under these strikes we've just heard about.
Thanks for that mention, Matt.
Of course, we'll look out for that.
Let's see if there are further questions for Mr Leclerc on Ukraine.
I don't see that's the case.
On that note, I'd like to thank you very much once again for joining us.
Immensely important as always.
So we'll keep the spotlight bright on the situation in Ukraine.
OK, colleagues, we're going to shift to our focus to the DRC where we have Doctor Meg Daugherty, who's the director of Department of Science for the Health, who's joining us.
So maybe I'll throw to you Tarek, if you want to introduce Doctor Daugherty, who's going to speak about vaccine trials on on Ebola.
So Tarek, over to you first.
Thank you very much, Rolando.
Well, let's let's give the floor immediately to Doctor Dorothy.
She is beside being our Director for Science for Health, she's also leading on research and development blueprint and she is our technical lead for vaccine trials and she's in Bunya and will tell us more about ongoing vaccine trials.
I'm in a Guinea to support the launch of the Tumani trial, which is a crucial clinical trial that we have hope will give us the answers to some of the most urgent scientific questions in this outbreak.
The Tumani means actually hope in Swahili and is giving us some hope.
I'm helping the research team put in place the scientific and operational foundations needed to conduct this trial rigorously and ethically, building on WHS previous experience in running these trials in other countries.
On Friday, I was present as the DRC launched the trial where four people were vaccinated.
It was moving to see this trial begin, just as it has been deeply sad to see the effect of this outbreak on communities.
I lived and worked in DRC nearly 40 years ago and it is quite heartbreaking to see this beautiful country challenged by outbreaks on top of humanitarian crises.
However, I am encouraged by seeing the work we're doing together with the Congolese and international scientists, local health authorities and health workers working alongside the communities and partners.
This trial is led by the Democratic Republic of Congo authorities and is integrated into the outbreak response and is managed by the Institute of Nacional de Research Biomedical or the INRB, which is the National Public Health and Biomedical Research Institute.
The Co Principal investigators, Dr Hugo Kabunga of the INRB and Dr Pierre Jeanquierre van Gurtuyun from the University of Antwerp will ensure that this trial unfolds with speed, ensuring high quality science and community engagement.
We are already discussing how to expand from one site to more sites leveraging the community outreach teams.
Tumani is a platform clinical trial that is designed so that every single or several vaccines in the single, all the vaccines we have right now can be evaluated within one research framework and uses the ring vaccination approach involving contacts of people with a confirmed case.
So 10 years ago during the West African Ebola outbreak, WHO and his partners used the same ring vaccination approach in Guinea to help establish the efficacy of a vaccine called Erbivo To today, scientists are building on that experience to seek answers about the Bunyabuja virus.
Erbivo is the first vaccine being evaluated in this platform trial, which we know it because it is safe and it is effective against the Ebola caused by what used to be called the Ebola virus.
It is not yet known if it will have any protective effect against the Ebola caused by Bunya Bujo virus.
Last week, the technical advisory groups convened by WHO evaluated the evidence on 2 vaccines designed specifically against Buju Buju, that is the Chatdex one developed by the University of Oxford with the Serum Institute of India and Moderna's mRNA 1469.
The advisory group will review all their data and publish the recommendations, we believe this week.
In the meantime, the rings are being set up with people who have family members sick with Ebola or who have been exposed to the virus in any other way.
This week, two rings are in place and several more are being prepared for inclusion.
Community members are already walking into the site asking to be enrolled, highlighting the intense need of an efficacious vaccine.
And we do not know yet for certain when the results will begin to emerge, but we will expect that it will take several months.
But already having this trial in place is an important step towards gathering the scientific data that will help policy makers reach decisions on which vaccines we can use.
And we anticipate and hope to protect people in this outbreak and future outbreaks.
So I'd be happy to take questions.
Thank you very much, Doctor Doherty.
Very important development indeed.
So let's see if there are questions for you in the room online.
We have one of from Robin of AFP.
Yes, I just wondered if it makes a difference how soon somebody is vaccinated after contact and whether that is something that you're measuring and whether that forms part of the trial?
Yes, currently the trial design is set up to be able to vaccinate between those who are eligible and between 1 and 21 days after an exposure.
That means a close contact with somebody with known Ebola Buenipojo disease.
And we won't know if the timing makes any difference until we get more information and enrol more people into the trial.
OK, Thank you very much for clarifying that, Emma, Reuters, good morning.
Which other vaccines will you use besides vivo?
And on what scale is this happening?
Like roughly how many people, how many rings do you think you'll be able to set up?
And finally, are you running any trials or studies looking into whether infection with bundibogiyo confers lifelong immunity down the line or how long immunity lasts after a survivor recovers?
So as I mentioned in my notes, but it is complicated.
So it is set up so that as new vaccines become available especially for those targeted to when you would you specific virus, they can be studied in this trial.
So it's starting with or vivo because it's available, it's in country.
And I think for the next 3 or 4 weeks, that will be the primary vaccine that has been brought into this, into this trial.
And we need to know that even though it was developed for Ebola, Zaire virus, we want to know if it has any vaccine efficacy in preventing new infections with Bunyubujo virus after that.
And we hope mid November that we'll be able to start adding in the Bunyubujo specific vaccines.
Those are the ones that were mentioned from Oxford and from Moderna.
There's several other vaccines that are being developed in the pipeline and as they make their go through their their initial studies, if they look promising, they too could be brought into this vaccine platform trial.
On the scale of the trial, it's an event driven trial.
So that means it's not based upon number of people enrolled, but it's on a number of events that either occur or are prevented.
And I would say it will take us several months to get those those number of events prevented.
And or, and so we hope that it starts out with probably two to four rings per day, scaling up to six rings per day of 10 people, but it's eventually it could be into the thousands, the number of people who will be enrolled in this trial.
And then will there are there other studies?
Yes, there are many other studies that who is aware of that we're not currently leading or Co sponsoring that are looking at the Natural History, what happens once 1 survives and looking at the long term immunity.
And we hope all of that other observational data that's getting collected will actually give us a lot more information about Bunyu Bhuja virus disease.
And also within this trial, there will be some immunology studies conducted as well.
I think going back to you, Robin, you have a follow up or another question entirely.
Yeah, Just just to clarify, these, these vaccines, Vibo, the Moderna one and the Chadox one, just to be clear, these are not vaccines that prevent you from catching the virus, but prevent you from developing severe disease if you do catch the virus.
Is is that a correct understanding?
If you could just clarify.
Yes, I know this has been a bit confusing around the messages.
Irvivo is a vaccine that has been developed and is licenced for use and has been known to prevent what we call Ebola Zaire, which is a different type of Ebola and it's different in terms of its genetic makeup then the Ebola Bunyabujo virus.
So only Erbivo is being studied in observational studies, not the one that I'm talking about.
Not too money to see if it reduces severe disease or death, however, into money.
We're looking at vaccine efficacy across all the vaccines.
We're looking to see if it prevents new infections and that's really important.
So vaccine efficacy is different than effectiveness.
So efficacy, I know these are you know are terms we use in clinical trials, but it's important to distinguish that a vaccine efficacy of 80 or 90% is really going to be what we were looking for in a vaccine that can interrupt transmission and to prevent if somebody has a vaccine that they won't acquire the disease at all.
Effectiveness is that maybe that vaccine has an effect on reducing the severity of disease or death and that's effectiveness.
And there are several other studies being run right now with their vivo to look at it effectiveness.
The Bunyu Bujo specific vaccines, which are the Chadex and Oxford and the Moderna, those two, we don't have any information about them, about reducing severity of disease or deaths because they're brand new.
They've been developed for this outbreak.
They've come to research and development rapidly.
So we can use them as in this trial.
And we're hoping, and what we are looking for in this trial is that they will show some level of vaccine efficacy or interrupting transmission between people.
Of course, we express our hope with you.
Doctor Dawartilis, making sure there are no further questions for you.
So again, thank you very, very much for joining us here in Geneva from Bunia, where you've been for some time.
And, and we'll all be focusing on these developments, which which you've highlighted.
And thank you very much for doing so.
I'm sorry, before we let you go, Sorry, Emma.
Is that for Doctor Daugherty?
I see your hand has popped up there.
I was hoping to ask a question, 2 questions to Tarek, but it it's not for Doctor.
OK, Could we put a pin in that because we have our guests on the podium now.
If it's a different subject, I'd rather wait until the end.
But again, thank you, Doctor Daugherty, for joining us.
And Tarek, if you could remain online because we have our guests who have now joined us on the podium.
Very pleased to have you on the podium with me.
Shah Razavi, who's the Director of ILO Social Protection Department, Isabel, who you know well from ILO.
But Isabel, I think you wanted to make some introductory remarks.
Today, the International Labour Organisation is releasing new global and regional estimates on domestic work informality and working conditions.
And to present the main findings, I'm pleased to welcome Shara Razavi, who's the Director of the Ilo's Labour and Social Protection Department.
Today I want to talk about the people who make millions of lives possible, including our own.
The people who clean our homes, prepare meals, look after our children, care for older persons and support those with disabilities.
People whose work allows millions of others to go to work, to earn a living and to lead their daily lives.
Their contribution is taken for granted, their work is undervalued and many of them lack even basic labour and social protection.
I'm of course talking about domestic workers.
Today the International Labour Organisation is releasing new global and regional estimates on domestic work.
The new figures that we have give us an updated picture of who these workers are, how much they earn, how many hours they work and whether they enjoy effective protection.
And the picture that is emerging from these figures is one of progress, but also one that underlines the considerable unfinished business still to be done.
So let me start with the scale of the sector.
Our latest data shows an estimated 80 million domestic workers worldwide, which is up from 75.6 million in 2019.
But the increase in numbers that you can see here should be interpreted carefully.
Domestic work has remained relatively stable as a share of employment at 2.2% of total employment and 4.4% of employees.
So what we're seeing is not a general expansion of domestic work relative to other forms of employment.
Rather, growth has been concentrated in particular regions and largely reflects broader employment growth.
The first major finding concerns informality, and by that we mean inadequate or ineffective access to labour and social protection.
Now an estimated 66.5 million domestic workers out of the 80 million that we that was just mentioned, 83% of the total are informally employed.
This is more than four out of five domestic worker worldwide.
Domestic workers are more than twice as likely to be informally employed compared to other employees.
But behind this global figure lies a more encouraging story.
In most countries that we have reviewed, informality among domestic workers has fallen.
When we look at countries for which we have comparable data between 2019 and 2025, in more than half of these countries have been able to reduce informality among domestic workers, and that's something to be taken note of.
So while there may have been a rise in the global informality rate, this should not be read as evidence of a widespread deterioration across countries.
It largely reflects the growing concentration of domestic workers in countries where informality remains persistently high.
And that matters because it shows that change is also possible and policies can make a difference.
But informality is only part of the story that we have here.
The other major issue has to do with the levels of pay.
Domestic workers earn, on average, just over half the monthly wage of other employees.
To be precise, it's 53.3%, so a little above 50% for domestic workers.
In informal employment, however, the figure is even lower.
It's less than 50%, it's 48.7%, and the gap is widening.
The other major issue that we draw attention to is working hours.
More than one in three domestic workers, that's 35.2%, work at least 49 hours per week, and almost 15% of them work 60 hours or more.
And then at the other extreme, many domestic workers work very short hours, sometimes moving between several households in order to make a living.
Informal domestic workers are particularly exposed to both these extremes of having too many hours or too few hours.
And behind all these figures, there is a very strong gender dimension.
Women account for 77.2% of domestic workers worldwide.
They are particularly concentrated in cleaning and direct care occupations, caring for children, for older persons, for people with disabilities and so forth.
Yet women domestic workers earn on average only 48% of the monthly wage of all other employees.
And these inequalities raise a broader question about how our societies value Care now.
In two days from today, on 29th of October, we will mark the International Day of Care and Support.
On that day, the ILO will join the international community in recognising the contribution of care workers around the world to our societies and to our economies.
And an important part of the message that we have is that domestic workers are an essential part of the care workforce.
Some provide direct care, as was just mentioned, looking after children, supporting older persons or providing care and support for persons with disabilities.
Many others provide indirect care through cleaning, cooking and managing households.
Both these forms of work are essential to the functioning of households and to our wider care system.
And both forms of care are expected to grow as populations age, as more women enter the paid labour market and as labour forces shrink.
So this is likely to be an expanding part of the economy and of employment.
The question is whether that growing demand will create more decent jobs or simply more low paid, informal, unprotected work.
Now I should end by saying that 15 years ago the ILO adopted Convention number 189 on domestic workers.
It established a simple but absolutely fundamental principle that domestic work is work and that domestic workers deserve the same rights and the same protections as other workers.
Since then, many countries have taken steps forward.
Today, the challenge is to turn that recognition into reality.
This means continuing efforts to formalise domestic work, including through the promotion and enforcement of compliance and increasing the social recognition of domestic work as work and ratifying the Convention 189 and ensuring decent work for domestic workers as we see it is really a win win scenario.
Not only does it uphold the rights of some of our most valuable workers, it also will improve the quantity and the quality of in home direct and indirect care services in the future because quality care depends on decent work and a sustainable future of care starts with decent work for domestic workers.
Thank you very much, Miss Rezavi.
Very important statistics in which tell a lot of stories too.
So thank you so very much for that.
Let's see if there are questions for you.
We do have a question from sorry, I don't have your, I have a Felix online.
If you can identify which media you're working for, Felix, Thank you.
Felix Osmanshausen for the German newspaper in the.
Thanks so much for the briefing.
Some countries like France or Belgium have implemented service voucher models to incentivize formalisation.
Can you just say something about what role these kind of voucher systems play in your best practise recommendations and how effective these fiscal incentives are for households and driving formalisation globally?
And then the second question is that Germany was among the early ratifiers of the convention, yet in Western Europe, 1/4 of domestic workers do remain informal or undeclared.
How, in your view, has the situation in Germany evolved, if you can say anything on that?
And what can be learned from approaches in other countries, like for example, Uruguay?
Thank you much, Felix, for the question that you have regarding the efforts made to formalise domestic work and the use of the vouchers that you're referring to.
Obviously the registration and formalisation of domestic work is something that is very much encouraged, but the way in which this is done is also important.
In particular, the role of intermediaries, what form they take, whether they're public service intermediaries or private intermediaries and whether or not any charges are made for the kind of intermediation that they do will make a difference in terms of the ratification of the convention.
Uh, yes, we encourage and we're very happy to see that countries are ratifying and we are at the number of, uh, around 40 ratifications, if I'm not mistaken, of the convention to this day.
Um and from countries like Uruguay, what we can also learn is the way in which systems have been put in place that are integrated care systems that recognise the importance of domestic workers as well as others that are providing care.
Other workers providing care in could be public or private institutions and the importance of social dialogue in that context and making sure that both workers organisations and employers of domestic workers are also part of that conversation and part of the social dialogue.
I would perhaps like to ask my colleagues if they want to add anything here, our technical lead on this, Miss Claire Hopden on on particularly the issue of vouchers.
Thank you very much, Sarah.
Yes, regarding the service voucher systems, the ILO has definitely put these forward as examples of good practises in a policy solution to what is a societal problem.
So the societal problem is a lack of formalised care and support in private households.
And the service voucher systems have basically there are mechanisms that are designed with household employers in mind that are relatively simple to use, sometimes with a subsidy involved to support the financial capacity of households to pay for domestic services.
And so these are certainly systems that we're looking closely at and looking for ways to replicate them in other countries, knowing that each country has its own context and fiscal space to do to take such measures.
Sorry if we can get your identity.
I didn't get the full name, So if you can maybe introduce yourself by title as well.
So my name is Claire Hobden.
I'm the technical specialist on domestic work and other vulnerable work at the ILO.
Thank you very much, Claire.
And Miss Rezavi, of course.
Go ahead, Spanish news agency.
I saw that around for just 40 countries ratify the convention.
Why there is so much reluctance for to to go and give the step to ratify the convention?
I make that part of the national own legislation.
We would certainly say that in in 15 years, 40 ratifications is not an insignificant number.
And and we want to really congratulate the countries that have taken this step.
But we do see the need for increasing the call on all countries and more countries to ratify, particularly in regions that ratification remains low in Asia and the Pacific, in Africa, in the Arab states.
We'd really do hope to see more ratification of the convention.
And we, we really do think also that there are many, the very, the ones that have done it, set very good examples in terms of what ratification can achieve, especially when it's really backed up by policies that make implementation of the provisions of the convention possible.
And that really points to the need to have the ratification together with the policies and the social dialogue, the awareness raising campaigns that are needed to make both the domestic workers aware of their rights as well as making it possible for their employers.
Very often isolated employers who may not be organised since it's households and families who are the employers.
But really to raise that awareness and show the advantages of registration and of the security that it brings for the workers.
And we also do want to emphasise that security and protection for domestic workers not only has a fundamental objective of recognising the rights of a very important segment of the workforce, but also it has many positive benefits in terms of the quality of the care that is provided for those who need care.
So as we said, it's a really win, win scenario.
And I think this message needs to be perhaps amplified more by the ILO, by others, by our international partners to draw attention to this milestone convention that is there and to encourage further ratification in regions that have not yet ratified.
But I, I will turn also to Claire to maybe highlight a few points on what may be the sum of the impediments to ratification.
I mean, I think that the ratification process, different countries take it in, in different ways.
All of them take it very seriously.
And so in many countries, if they don't feel that they're yet in a position to be able to implement and enforce compliance, they won't ratify right away.
That doesn't mean that they're not taking measures so often.
They are extending protection to domestic workers.
And in 2021, when the ILO launched its its 10 year report on the the convention, we did measure and track progress and extension of labour and social protection to domestic workers.
And we had seen that since the adoption of the convention, most countries had extended some form of protection to domestic workers.
So I think in general there has been movement, there has been a positive trend in extension of labour protection.
And now really what the call is for is, is to ensure that those rights are translated in into reality.
And that really requires, I think the other issue that's underpinning any reticence and ratification and in promotion of compliance or compliance in general among households, which is this issue of undervaluation.
So we, I think, use the word undervaluation a lot, but what do we really mean by it?
And I think at the end of the day, if you imagine that a domestic worker earns $50.00 for every $100 that somebody else makes, it gives you a sense that basically we are paying the people who we entrust with care in a way that's highly discriminatory and doesn't show any value for the work.
So I think that's really what we're talking about here.
I think, you know, during COVID, everyone was very keen to applaud, you know, the essential workers.
And I would say domestic workers are a very important component and pillar of that essential workforce.
But applaud on its own and recognition without action, I think is not sufficient.
And this point of looking at the valuation, whether it's in terms of pay, in terms of protections that are offered, in terms of security after spending a lifetime doing the care work for others, when that worker is sick, when they get old, if there is no pension, no care, no ability to provide care for themselves.
And to have to do that without financial hardship to be able to access healthcare and other forms of care.
I think it's a, it's a, it's a stigma for any society to have those conditions.
So I think the call for a proper evaluation and to really put words, move beyond words and apply that in action, in policies and in ensuring that the systems are solid and can deliver the rights and the enjoyment of rights is, is what we owe to ourselves.
So thank you very much, Miss Razavi.
HOBDEN, for the record, if you don't mind repeating your title again, Sure.
ILO, technical specialist on domestic work and other vulnerable work.
Thank you very much, Claire.
And again, Miss Razavi and Isabel, you talked about amplifying.
This is a perfect platform for that.
We have an abundance of information out there.
It's just about turning that into action.
So thank you very, very much for for coming here, both of you and Isabel as well.
OK, colleagues, nearly done.
Just to keep you on track with the Secretary General's activities, you've seen a fair amount of emails about statements, speaking to his activities, as well as press encounters and address to the Cairo University.
Whilst he was in Cairo over the last couple of days, he also delivered a press.
He actually had a press conference.
We shared those transcripts with you.
Lots of important rich information in there.
He speaks about many things, including Gaza, including Sudan, including the plight of refugees, Libya, global governance, lots of important messages there in.
We also shared a readout with you of the secretary general's meeting with the president of Egypt, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.
Last night after hours we shared with you a statement attributable to the spokesperson for the Secretary General on the conclusion of the mandate of the United Nations Transitional Assistance Mission in Somalia, UNT MISS, which will come to an end the end of this month, the 31st of October.
The mission UNT Miss will complete it's two year transition on seas operations and this is pursuant to Security Council resolutions passed in 2024 and 2025.
Now of course colleagues, this milestone brings to the end more than three decades of the UN mission in support of peace building and State Building governance and reconciliation in Somalia.
But indeed, the UN will continue to support Somalia through its resident agencies, funds and programmes, working in partnership with Somalia authorities, the African Union and other international partners to advance peace, stability, human rights and sustainable development.
So this is contained in the statement we shared with you.
The Human Rights Committee is continuing its session this week and the report of Jamaica is being reviewed today.
So you'll see a press release to that effect.
I wanted to highlight an important, important report that was launched yesterday, was highlighted in New York, but I just wanted to make sure you you have information on it.
It's a report from the secretary general on women, peace and security, which again was launched yesterday.
Now it says that at least 25 women and girls are killed every day as civilian deaths amount sexual violence rises and women remain largely excluded from peace negotiations.
Incidentally, there is a present the presentation of this report is taking place in Security Council today.
Among other things, it's the report speaks to 750 million women and girls are now living within 50 kilometres of an active conflict, 40 million more in than in 2024 and more than at any time since 1990.
So staggering statistics in this important report which we shared with you this morning.
And last but not least, just wanted to highlight a an ex post from the head of the UN OPS, Jorge Moreira da Silva, who speaks to the situation in Gaza in particular.
He notes that the UNOP team in Gaza has reported 3 incidents over 3 consecutive days affecting UNOP convoys and premises in the past week alone.
So I just felt I wanted to announce that that is all I have.
Thank you very much, Francois for reminding me that's I've been up here for a long time, since 10:00 this morning.
But indeed there is a question for you, Tarek.
He he actually already answered me.
Lots of stories coming out of this from this platform here.
So thank you very much for your interest and we'll see you here on Friday.
