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The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 24 September 2026.

Statement by Chris Elmore MP, Minister for the Americas, Multilateral, and Human Rights, at the High-level Plenary Meeting to Address the Existential Threats Posed by Sea-level Rise.

The United Kingdom welcomes the adoption of the UN Declaration on Sea-Level Rise, and thanks Australia and Cabo Verde for their leadership as co-facilitators.

For many countries represented in this room, sea-level rise is not a distinct threat; it is a present reality.

A reality that affects homes, livelihoods, and the future of entire communities.

This declaration, the first United Nations membership-wide political response on sea-level rise, has shown that the international community can come together to address one of the greatest challenges of our time.

Today’s adoption is a visible demonstration of international support for communities most vulnerable to its impact.

The United Kingdom welcomes the declaration’s grounding in the best available science, and its recognition of the risks posed by sea-level rise. 

We also welcome its focus on adaptation, resilience, and practical cooperative action.

Throughout these negotiations, the United Kingdom has worked constructively towards a balanced outcome that supports the priorities of small island developing states while protecting important principles on climate governance, finance, and international law. 

We welcome the continued primacy of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. 

The United Kingdom recognises the importance of the legal dimensions of sea-level rise, including continuity of statehood and maritime zones.

We reaffirm the importance of implementing international law, as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Low-lying states are facing an urgent and unprecedented threat from rising sea levels. 

That is why we have recently announced a significant change in policy, with a starting point to continue to recognise statehood.

Whether a state lost some or even all of its land to sea-level rise, we will ensure we consider the circumstances in each case, including the wishes of the people of the affected state.

And the United Kingdom’s £330 million pledge to the ninth replenishment of the Global Environment Facility that the Foreign Secretary announced this week is a further demonstration of our commitment to action.

This new funding will help the GEF continue to address global challenges, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preventing biodiversity loss, with increased support for vulnerable SIDS and LDCs. 

Today’s declaration is an important step.

The task now is to turn shared commitment into practical action.

The communities most affected by sea-level rise deserve nothing less.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 24 September 2026.

More Palestinians are set to receive vital aid as a result of a major new package of UK support announced by the Foreign Secretary today at the UN General Assembly.

• UK support will help provide healthcare, clean water, sanitation and other essential services for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
• Funding will include support for medical consultations, rehabilitation for children with blast injuries, safe water provision and vital mental health services.
• Comes as the UK convenes partners with Jordan and Qatar to drive action on humanitarian access and Gaza’s recovery.

More Palestinians are set to receive vital aid as a result of a major new package of UK support announced by the Foreign Secretary today at the UN General Assembly.

Following the reset of its approach to Israel and Palestine earlier this month, the UK has brought together a coalition of partners at UNGA and set out plans for humanitarian support.

The £88m package of funding will help deliver essential healthcare, clean water, sanitation and hygiene services, waste management and protection support to people affected by the conflict in both Gaza and the West Bank.

The announcement comes as the UK co-hosts, alongside Jordan and Qatar, a meeting of senior government ministers at the UN General Assembly focused on driving action on humanitarian access, healthcare and recovery in Gaza. The event will bring together regional partners, the United Nations, civil society, Palestinian representatives, and international donors to discuss practical steps to improve the delivery of lifesaving assistance.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said:

It is vital that civilians in Gaza have unhindered access to aid.

The UK is pledging a major new package of aid to provide much needed healthcare support to those desperately in need.

We urge the Government of Israel to listen to our Call to Action and take steps to end its unacceptable restrictions on Gaza.

UK-funded support is expected to enable: 

• Medical consultations for up to 900,000 people through UK-supported healthcare facilities.
• Rehabilitation and prosthetic treatment for 1,000 children with blast injuries.
• Solid waste management services for up to 900,000 people.
• Safe water provision through emergency water trucking for 150,000 people.
• Mental health and psychosocial support for 21,000 people.

Since October 2023, UK humanitarian support has helped deliver sustained food assistance to more than 1.4 million people across the Palestinian Territories and improved water, sanitation and hygiene services for more than 830,000 people.

The UK continues to work with international partners to support humanitarian access, protect civilians and lay the foundations for Gaza’s recovery.

Notes to Editors:

• The UK has committed more than £88 million in humanitarian and early recovery support for Palestinians in the current financial year.  The UK’s bilateral ODA budget for Palestine for FY 26/27 is £127m. This figure was published in July 2026 as part of the FCDO’s planned ODA programme country and regional allocations.
• The package includes support previously announced through UNRWA and the UN Horizon Fund, as well as new humanitarian funding.
• The UK, Jordan and Qatar are convening partners at the UN General Assembly to discuss humanitarian access, healthcare provision and recovery in Gaza.
• UK-funded programmes support healthcare, water and sanitation, protection services and early recovery activities across Gaza and the Palestinian Territories.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 24 September 2026.

Press statement by the co-hosts UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas, and Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs H.E. Dr Musalia Mudavadi of Kenya on the security risks of the intensifying climate and nature crisis.

We, the Foreign Secretary of the UK, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, and the Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs of Kenya co-hosted yesterday a meeting of Foreign Ministers to underscore the security risks of the intensifying climate and nature crisis. 

Unprecedented wildfires, droughts, crop failures, and extreme heat are profoundly impacting the resilience of communities, economies and ecosystems around the world. Many of the communities threatened or affected by fragility or conflict, or facing severe humanitarian needs, are particularly vulnerable to cope with and adapt to the climate crisis.

Recent months have been characterised by extremes including record July sea surface temperatures, the warmest July on record for North America, Africa and Asia, and sustained heatwaves in Europe.  This is already disrupting agricultural production and supply chains, with implications for food security and economic resilience. El Nino is expected to exacerbate existing vulnerabilities including those relating to health, food and water security. The horrific glacier collapse in Nepal causing deaths and many missing people is unfortunately an ominous harbinger of what lies in store if we leave the climate crisis unaddressed.

As we discussed today, the impacts of global ecosystem degradation are becoming more acute and systemic. We are deeply concerned that this is occurring across all regions, with a realistic possibility that some ecosystems will start to collapse from 2030. Cascading and compounding risks are likely to include geopolitical instability, economic insecurity, conflict and displacement and migration and increased resource competition. 

As an international community, we have made important strides in tackling climate change and nature loss including through initiatives on climate, peace and security. However as recent events make clear, and with devastating impacts from El Nino to come, we need to go further to meet these challenges and ensure the international system is able to anticipate and respond to climate shocks. We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to the Paris Agreement and its strengthened implementation to address the concerning gap between current emissions trajectories and those required to keep 1.5C in reach, and to the swift, full and effective implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework. And we commit to working together directly and at international and regional gatherings to strengthen action.

We:

1. Regard the climate and nature crisis as a national and global security threat. Tackling the causes and consequences is essential to safeguarding the security, stability and resilience of our societies for future generations;
2. Commit to analysis and horizon scanning on climate and nature-related risks within our respective national and regional security systems;
3. Will build on the success of existing initiatives, commit to further sharing of analysis, strengthening of cooperation and, where appropriate joint risk assessments, scenario and contingency planning on the security implications of accelerating climate change and nature loss;
4. Commit to working together to address urgent transboundary risks that require collective action including to anticipate and respond to climate shocks and mitigate the impact of El Nino, with a particular focus on the following:

• Accelerating action on fertilisers, food and water security to mitigate the impact of shocks on existing food and water crises;
• Expanding early warning systems, anticipatory action and pre-arranged finance to reduce the immediate impact of extreme climate and weather, and scaling adaptive capacity to build longer term resilience and climate security to multiple and overlapping climate impacts;
• Ensuring the multilateral development banks’ crisis response toolkits are fit for purpose in an era of increasingly frequent climate shocks, and promoting existing efforts by the banks to strengthen and standardise these tools;
• Promoting ongoing work by the IMF and World Bank to strengthen the consideration of climate-related vulnerabilities and resilience-building investments within debt sustainability assessments;
• Calling on UN agencies to embed climate security considerations and conflict-sensitive approaches, leveraging the expertise of the UN Climate Security Mechanism (CSM);
• Strengthening recognition of nature and forests as critical infrastructure for resilience, security and growth, and exploring opportunities to integrate the protection and restoration of critical ecosystems into economic planning, risk management, and decision-making;
• And promoting ongoing work by the UN under the Inter-Governmental Process on Beyond GDP to build pragmatic economic growth models that integrate climate and nature ecosystem resilience and inform evolution of the post-2030 SDGs.

We look forward to reconvening on these issues at forthcoming fora including COP31, the World Bank and IMF annual meetings, and through 2027.