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Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres is heading to the hurricane-battered Caribbean, where he said
Wednesday that scientists predict the extreme storms during this year's
Atlantic hurricane season "will be the new normal of a warming
world." The U.N. chief told reporters that Hurricane Irma, which
devastated Barbuda, was a Category 5 storm for three consecutive days —
"the longest on satellite record" — and its winds that reached 300
kilometers per hour for 37 hours were "the longest on record at that
intensity."
Hurricanes
Harvey and Irma marked the first time two Category 4 storms made landfall on
the United States mainland in the same year, Guterres said, and Hurricane
Maria, a Category 5 storm, followed up by decimating Dominica and devastating
Puerto Rico. The secretary-general said "scientists are learning more and
more about the links between climate change and extreme weather."
A warmer climate
"turbocharges the intensity of hurricanes," which pick up energy as
they move across the ocean, he said. "The melting of glaciers, and the
thermal expansion of the seas, means bigger storm surges" and with more
people living along coastlines "the damage is, and will be that much
greater." Guterres said the world has "the tools, the technologies
and the wealth to address climate change, but we must show more determination
in moving towards a green, clean, sustainable energy future" — and in
stepping up implementation of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
The secretary-general
said he will travel to Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica on Saturday to survey
the damage and assess what more the United Nations can do. Stephen O'Malley,
the U.N. resident coordinator for Barbados and the Organization of Eastern
Caribbean States, said Tuesday that the United Nations, World Bank and Antigua
government have conducted a post-disaster needs assessment for Barbuda, whose
1,800 residents were evacuated to Antigua before Hurricane Irma damaged 95
percent of its structures on September 14.
He said a
similar assessment will be done in Dominca, which was ravaged on September 18
by Hurricane Maria, probably in about three weeks. Guterres said the response
to the $113.9 million U.N. appeal to cover humanitarian needs in the Caribbean
for the immediate period ahead has been poor and he urged donors "to
respond more generously in the weeks to come." He also stressed that
"innovative financing mechanisms will be crucial" to enable these
small islands to recover, rebuild and "strengthen resilience."