As rising seas submerge growing swathes of land, countries that lose territory should still keep their national boundaries, sovereign rights and UN membership, according to a political declaration adopted at the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday.
The declaration, which was championed by climate-vulnerable small island states, affirms "the presumption in favour of continued statehood" in the face of sea level rise fuelled by climate change, and urges countries to work together to assist communities affected by encroaching oceans.
Speaking at a high-level UN meeting to address the existential threats posed by sea level rise, Cabo Verde's Prime Minister Francisco Carvalho, one of the initiative's co-facilitators along with Australia, said the adoption of the text by consensus sends "a message of hope".
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As rising seas submerge growing swathes of land, countries that lose territory should still keep their national boundaries, sovereign rights and UN membership, according to a political declaration adopted at the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday.
The declaration, which was championed by climate-vulnerable small island states, affirms "the presumption in favour of continued statehood" in the face of sea level rise fuelled by climate change, and urges countries to work together to assist communities affected by encroaching oceans.
Speaking at a high-level UN meeting to address the existential threats posed by sea level rise, Cabo Verde's Prime Minister Francisco Carvalho, one of the initiative's co-facilitators along with Australia, said the adoption of the text by consensus sends "a message of hope".
"This declaration has a very special meaning. For us, sea level rise is neither a distant threat nor a theoretical concern," he said, adding that rising seas put at risk key infrastructure, water resources and economic growth in small island states.
In the Pacific, sea levels have risen at twice the global rate, dramatically increasing coastal flooding events from two to 20 a year in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and from zero to 102 events per year in American Samoa, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Surangel Whipps Jr., president of the Pacific island of Palau, said the summit in New York represents a "moment of international solidarity", and highlighted that small island states will remain permanent members of the UN.
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Declaration recognises statehood
An advisory opinion by the world's top maritime court, the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), first upheld in 2024 that countries do not have to shrink their maritime borders even if they lose land territory due to sea level rise. This was reiterated by the International Court of Justice in last year's landmark ruling on the climate obligations of states.
The new declaration endorsed by all governments at the UN General Assembly stresses that sea level rise "is not a distant scenario but a real and lived experience for many", and notes that international law must be implemented in global responses to rising seas.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the "milestone must now be translated into action", adding that the declaration should encourage an "ongoing dialogue" at the "highest possible level" leading to practical outcomes. Pacific islands have proposed an international treaty on sea level rise that would provide more legal certainty.
"Those on the frontlines must be front and centre on every decision. We cannot allow countries and cultures to vanish beneath the waves," he said. "The SOS has gone out. The world must answer."
At regional summit, Pacific islands ask for COP31 support for clean energy and finance
Goodwin Friday, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said measures to protect vulnerable states will require adequate finance. "Investing in resilience now is more cost-effective than paying the far greater price for loss and damage later," he added.
Championed by Australia's COP31 co-presidency, Pacific islands have sought to put adaptation to sea level rise and ocean conservation at the top of the political agenda by inviting world leaders to attend the pre-COP31 summit co-hosted by Fiji and Tuvalu in October.
Tuvalu will also host the second global fossil fuel phase-out summit in April 2027, after around 60 governments met this year in Santa Marta, Colombia, to discuss ending their dependence on coal, oil and gas.
"Our coastlines, our reefs and our communities are living with the consequences of fossil fuel dependence every day, and our people have earned the right to help shape the way forward," Lynda Tabuya, Fiji's climate minister, said in a statement announcing details of the conference.
Ocean monitoring gets a boost in New York
Amid record-breaking marine heat and seas rising at unprecedented speed, governments in New York announced new commitments to protect the world's ocean, as efforts to bolster marine ecosystems and coastal communities rise up the political agenda.
On Wednesday, the EU and Canada announced more funding for a new Europe-led ocean monitoring system called OceanEye, launched in the aftermath of a failed attempt by the Trump administration to dismantle the largest existing network of deep-sea observatories.
During an event at UN headquarters in New York, EU President Ursula von der Leyen and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced around $163 million in new funding for the initiative, with the EU pledging €92 million ($105m) on top of existing seed funding and Canada pledging C$82 million (US$58m) over five years.
According to an EU statement, while OceanEye will collaborate with the Global Ocean Observing System, that network "remains vulnerable to financial shortfalls and geopolitical disruptions". A group of 30 countries from Europe, Africa and the Americas joined an international initiative in support of OceanEye, including large coastal nations like Brazil, Namibia and Mexico.
Von der Leyen said OceanEye "can make us the leading ocean data provider in a matter of years”, including by launching new satellites and installing new observatories in the deep ocean. “From outer space to the deepest ocean, our funding helps us keep watch beneath the waves,” she added.
Carney said the initiative would help protect Canada’s Arctic region with real-time monitoring operating year-round. “We can’t protect what we can’t see,” he said, also highlighting that Canada had expanded conservation of its ocean territory from 1% a decade ago to 15% now.
In New York, a group of 19 countries said they are either developing or implementing plans to sustainably manage all of their ocean territory, with 12 new nations joining the initiative. In a joint communiqué, they called on more countries to sign up ahead of COP31.
Warnings of El Niño-fuelled extreme heat
Scientists and world leaders have raised the alarm over this year’s record-breaking marine temperatures, which have persisted above historical peaks for more than 100 days as the naturally occurring El Niño phenomenon intensifies in the Pacific.
Extreme ocean heat could become a threat to coastal ecosystems and communities, experts fear. Water temperatures 1.5C above normal levels have also rapidly fuelled a strong hurricane in the Pacific in recent days.
Despite scientific calls for additional ocean conservation efforts, a report launched this week in New York warned that efforts to protect ocean ecosystems are lagging behind, with only 10% of the global ocean covered by conservation areas and just 3.5% designated as “effectively protected”.
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Facts Only
* A political declaration was adopted at the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday concerning sea level rise.
* The declaration affirms "the presumption in favour of continued statehood" for countries losing territory due to climate change.
* Climate-vulnerable small island states championed the declaration.
* Cabo Verde's Prime Minister and Australia were co-facilitators of the initiative.
* Rising seas pose risks to infrastructure, water resources, and economic growth in small island states.
* Sea levels have risen at twice the global rate in the Pacific.
* The Republic of the Marshall Islands experienced an increase in coastal flooding events from two to twenty per year.
* American Samoa experienced an increase in coastal flooding events from zero to 102 per year.
* The International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) and the International Court of Justice have previously upheld that countries do not have to shrink maritime borders due to sea level rise.
* The UN Secretary-General called for the declaration to translate into action and encourage an ongoing dialogue leading to practical outcomes.
* New funding was announced in New York for the OceanEye ocean monitoring system, involving commitments from the EU and Canada.
Executive Summary
A political declaration was adopted at the UN General Assembly in New York affirming the presumption in favor of continued statehood for countries facing territory loss due to sea level rise caused by climate change. This declaration was championed by climate-vulnerable small island states and calls for international cooperation to assist affected communities. The text acknowledges that rising seas are a real experience, not a distant threat, and stresses that international law must be applied in responses to rising seas. Leaders, including Cabo Verde's Prime Minister and Palau's president, framed the adoption as a message of hope and emphasized the need for action by those on the frontlines.
The context highlights specific impacts, such as increased coastal flooding events in the Marshall Islands and American Samoa due to rising sea levels outpacing the global rate. Discussions at summits also focused on adaptation finance, with some leaders arguing that investing in resilience now is more cost-effective than future loss and damage, while others called for international solidarity and legal certainty through treaties. Furthermore, efforts are underway to boost ocean monitoring, exemplified by new funding for systems like OceanEye, alongside broader global commitments regarding energy transitions and managing ocean territories.
Full Take
The narrative establishes a direct link between geophysical reality (sea level rise) and legal/political identity (statehood), attempting to frame an existential threat as a solvable governance problem requiring immediate international consensus. The pattern involves small island states leveraging shared vulnerability to establish a precedent, moving the discourse from physical loss to legal continuity. A critical tension emerges between the urgent need for global political action, exemplified by calls for treaties and finance, and the slow pace of institutional implementation, as noted by the UN Secretary-General's call for translated action.
The framing around sovereignty—the right to exist separate from geography—is an attempt to solidify intangible rights against material erosion. The underlying assumption is that international law can effectively adapt to unprecedented environmental shifts, a concept tested by prior maritime rulings but now being forcefully applied in a novel context of territorial change. What is often unstated is the immense burden placed on frontline communities whose survival depends not just on physical space but on recognized legal status and predictable institutional support. The pattern suggests that perceived moral urgency (the message of hope) is being successfully channeled into tangible mechanisms (monitoring, finance), yet resistance may still exist at the level of full implementation.
What are the structural implications when sovereignty becomes conditional upon environmental stability? If the "presumption in favour of continued statehood" holds only in theory until physical realities force a renegotiation, how do these frameworks protect agency during transitional periods? What mechanisms can be developed to ensure that the 'hope' generated by declarations translates into enforceable, equitable resource allocation rather than remaining rhetorical political momentum?
Sentinel — Human
The text is structured like a synthesized news report pulling from multiple related developments, demonstrating strong factual anchoring but exhibiting a journalistic synthesis style rather than pure, unedited machine generation.