Zelenskiy calls for Russia to lose UN veto power; UN chief says ‘humanity has opened gates of hell’ on climate - live - The Guardian

Zelenskiy calls for Russia to lose UN veto power; UN chief says ‘humanity has opened gates of hell’ on climate - live | United Nations | The Guardian

Zelenskiy calls for Russia's veto power to be removed

Zelenskiy calls for the UN general assembly to be given power to overcome the veto power held by Russia, calling it a “necessary step”. He says:
It is impossible to stop the war because all efforts are vetoed by the aggressor.

Proposing an overhaul of the UN’s security council to broaden membership, he says Ukraine considers it “unjust” when billions of people do not have a permanent representative in the security council, while Russia does.

He says:
World leaders are seeking new platforms and alliances that could reduce the disastrous scope of problems, the problems that are met here within these walls with rhetoric rather than real solutions with aspirations to compromise with killers, rather than to protect lives. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks at a meeting of the UN security council at UN headquarters in New York. Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters Leaders of some of the world’s most climate vulnerable nations are connecting the dots between sustainable development, the climate emergency, and debt reduction - dots that most rich, polluting nations would rather not be connected.

Mia Mottley, prime minister of Barbados, said:

“We have a call for a debt cancellation for all low income countries because if they are going to meet the SDGs and if they are going to do what is necessary for climate ambition, they have to be put in a position so to do.”

“It is painful to continue to see that you are asking us to increase borrowing to build resilient infrastructure for something that we did not do. And then at the same time, you want to also ensure that you have a loss and damage fund that does not have the adequate means for grant funding to be able to help countries rebuild. It is unconscionable, and it is almost a crime against humanity,” added Mottley.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, Co-Chair of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Advocates group, speaks at the opening session of the second SDG Summit on September 18, 2023 alongside Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group, ahead of the 78th United Nations General Assembly. Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images

China warns countries not to 'pour oil over fire' over Ukraine crisis

Ma Zhaoxu says China has facilitated talks for peace “in its own way” and that Beijing has played a “positive and constructive role” in resolving the conflict in Ukraine.

He says the Ukraine “crisis” – he does not refer it as a “war” during his speech – has become what it is today “for a variety of deep and complex reasons”.
A prolonged and expanded Ukraine crisis is in no one’s interest in light of the current situation.

Ma says it is “important to stick to the general direction of political settlement”, and calls to “avoid pouring oil over the fire”.
The parties to the conflict should strictly observe international humanitarian law, follow the principles of necessity, distinction and proportionality, protect civilians and civil infrastructure and provide rapid safe and unimpeded humanitarian access in order to lessen the suffering of civilians.

China’s vice foreign minister, Ma Zhaoxu, tells the security council meeting on Ukraine that Beijing believes that the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be respected”.

He says the “legitimate” security concerns of all countries should be “taken seriously” and that all efforts should be made in “resolving the crisis”.

Ma points to the fact that China released its 12-point peace plan for Ukraine earlier this year, which called for dialogue, respect for all countries’ territorial sovereignty, and an end to economic sanctions. It also urged all parties to avoid nuclear escalation but critically did not suggest Russia withdraw its forces. The proposals were welcomed by Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, at the time.

Protesters have targeted institutions that financially support the fossil fuel industry, with activists picketing the Bank of America and blocking access to the New York Federal Reserve.

The protesters “had a clear message for the Biden administration: stop sacrificing communities”, according to Ebony Twilley Martin, executive director of Greenpeace USA.
Overwhelmingly Americans don’t want this. We deserve a planet free from pollution and the devastating impacts it causes. Stop approving fossil fuel projects that hurt communities like mine – at home and abroad.

Climate activists attend the march against fossil fuels in midtown Manhattan. Photograph: VIEW press/Corbis/Getty ImagesPeople involved in climate activism hold a demonstration in the Financial District of Manhattan to demand an end to fossil fuel funding by Wall Street and the American government in New York City. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Britain’s deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, who recently spoke at the UN security council meeting, flew on a near-empty RAF plane to attend the general assembly in New York, the Guardian has learned.

Dowden travelled on a 158-seat RAF Voyager with only a few advisers and defence personnel, sources said. The aircraft is usually used to transport senior ministers with large delegations of officials, journalists and occasionally business executives.

Dowden flew to New York on Tuesday to attend parts of the UN summit, where tackling climate crisis has been a key theme.

It comes as the UK’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, gave a speech rowing back on some of the government’s most significant climate policies.

It’s worth remembering that California governor Gavin Newsom didn’t always feel like this.

Rather he has been forced to shift his thinking on fossil fuels by the deepening climate emergency and the state’s climate activists and organizers, according to Antonia Juhasz, senior fossil fuels researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Governor Newsom has not always felt this way, nor advocated for taking on fossil fuels. This is the result of decades of organizing by California activists and workers, led by frontline communities esp. environmental justice communities most impacted by these ongoing operations.

Gavin Newsom: 'climate crisis is a fossil fuel crisis ... it's burning oil, gas and coal'

Nina Lakhani

The unlikely star of the UN summit so far has arguably been the California governor Gavin Newsom, whose state has been battered by wildfires, floods and extreme heat in the past 12 months and where two insurance companies have pulled out due to the growing risk and tighter rules on premium hikes.

Perhaps that’s why Newsom decided to say it how it is:
The climate crisis is a fossil fuel crisis. It’s not complicated; it’s the burning of oil, gas, and coal, and we need to call that out. For decades the oil industry has been playing each and every one of us for fools.

His speech was widely applauded by climate advocates as “unprecedented” including Harjeet Singh, the director of global engagement for the Fossil Fuel Treaty initiative.

UNPRECEDENTED - No political leader said it as is! 🔥

Zelenskiy leaves before Russia addresses UN security council

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, left the security council chamber after his remarks to the body. He is therefore not in the chamber to hear remarks by Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy departs after addressing the UN security council. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

Sergei Lavrov accuses the US and its allies of “egregiously and openly” interfering in the domestic affairs of Ukraine since the collapse of the Soviet union.

The Russian foreign minister claims “a litany of western leaders" have “directly encouraged” anti-government demonstrations and acts of violence, and that they have “denied the rights of Russian-language speakers in Ukraine and the residents of Crimea”.

The UK’s deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, who is representing his country at the UN security council meeting, expressed solidarity with Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the people of Ukraine who have met Russia’s invasion “with bravery and with courage”.

Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s aggression is “not only a fight for freedom” but a “fight for the principles upon which the United Nations itself is based”, he said.
When Russia’s tanks rolled into Ukraine, they trampled over every single one of those principles. They have done so ever since.

Dowden warned of the “grave” risks if the world allows Russia to continue its war in Ukraine, pointing to the human cost of Russian aggression.
Ukraine has been suffering the terrible consequences of Russia’s war of choice. … Russia has callously targeted schools, hospitals, even playground.

UK rolls back on key green targets as it skips key statement on climate action

Britain’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has announced a major rethink of his government’s climate policies, rolling back some of the UK’s most important green targets in one of his biggest policy U-turns in office.

At a press conference in Downing Street, the prime minister announced the UK would no longer plan to end the sale of new gas boilers by 2035, and would push back the deadline for selling new petrol and diesel cars by five years.

Meanwhile, the UK was notable by its absence from a key statement pledging ambitious action on the climate crisis, from a group of countries of which it is normally a leading member.

Richard Ratcliffe, husband of British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, said he was delighted that five Americans had been released by Iran this week as part of a complex wider deal. But he said:
It is really hard for those the US government left behind and still in harm’s way. It will be essential while the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, is still in New York that the US government gets assurances from him that those left behind are kept safe, if it hasn’t already got them, and that there are no more executions of foreign nationals for leverage.

He added:
The bigger picture is that the world needs to take its head out of the sand. For too long, western governments have been reluctant to acknowledge Iran’s hostage diplomacy, and talk instead of consular cases. Iran’s hostage enterprise has expanded and morphed into something more dangerous because it has been allowed to.

Siamak Namazi, one of the five Americans released as part of the recently announced US-Iran prisoner exchange, said:
It is only if the free world finally agrees to collectively impose draconian consequences on those who use human lives as mere bargaining chips that the Iranian regime and its ilk will be compelled to make difference choices.

On the day of the hostages’ release, the US censured Iran’s intelligence and security ministry for its involvement in the wrongful detention of US citizens, and the former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his support of the ministry.

The US defended the deal for the five on the basis that the $6bn released to Iran was Iranian money, and use of the cash in Iranian banks in Qatar would be monitored to ensure it was spent only for humanitarian purposes.

UN inquiry into rights in Iran urged to look at detention of dual nationals

Patrick Wintour

A UN inquiry into human rights in Iran has been asked to intervene in the growing detention of Iranian dual nationals and to identify the practice as unlawful state hostage-taking.

The inquiry, set up last November by the UN human rights council and being overseen by three lawyers, is due to report in March 2024. A submission from the Free Nazanin campaign, which worked for the release of the British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, warns the UN body that Iran is normalising the capture of dual nationals for use as diplomatic bargaining chips.

The submission says it has become an integral part of Iran’s abuse of human rights in the country. Iran has largely claimed the detainees are spies.

The exact number of dual nationals held in Iranian jails, mainly on spying charges, is unknown but the campaign estimates it is more than 30.

Here’s more from that meeting between the US president, Joe Biden, and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu – the first since Bibi returned to power in December.

Instead of a meeting at the White House – as preferred by Netayahu – the pair spoke a New York hotel ballroom on the sidelines of the UN general assembly.

Biden reiterated his commitment to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, as he repeated his support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The biggest issue on the agenda was the US-led push to forge diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and Biden signaled his commitment to the normalisation effort, which he said would have been unthinkable years ago.
Joe Biden shakes hands with Benjamin Netanyahu as they meet on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York City. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images