Austria, Sustainable Development Group, Yemen & other topics - Daily Press Briefing (11 May 2022

Briefing by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Highlights
- Austria
- Sustainable Development Group
- Yemen
- Middle East
- Afghanistan
- Central African Republic
- Mali
- Kenya
- Ukraine/Jobs
- Senior Official Travel
- Financing Africa's Recovery
- Youth Envoy
- Financial Contribution

AUSTRIA
This morning, the Secretary-General met with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen at the President’s office in Vienna.
In press remarks after the meeting, the Secretary-General recognized President Van der Bellen’s leadership in the global fight against climate change. “As dramatic as it is, the war in Ukraine cannot make us forget that climate change is an existential threat to us all - to the whole world,” the Secretary-General said. He added that the impacts of climate change can be seen everywhere, including in the Austrian Alps, where glaciers are retreating, and ice and snow bridges are disappearing.
The Secretary-General and the President later visited the Vienna Technical University, where the Secretary-General encouraged the students to keep raising their voices to push governments to make real changes.
Afterwards, the Secretary-General was hosted by the Austrian Chancellor, Karl Nehammer, for a working lunch.
In comments to the press afterward, the Secretary-General said that the world faces multiple and interlinked global crises and a proliferation of conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which is a violation of its territorial integrity and of the Charter of the United Nations. He expressed particular concern for the continuing air strikes on urban centres in Ukraine.
Following his meeting with the Chancellor, the Secretary-General met with the President of the National Council, Wolfgang Sobotka, with whom he exchanged views on the war in Ukraine.
Later in the afternoon, the Secretary-General travelled to the Vienna International Centre, which houses the main UN agencies in Vienna. He met with the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, and also held a town hall meeting with UN staff.
Tomorrow, he will open the meeting of the UN Chief Executives Board, hosted by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
 
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GROUP
Also, in Vienna today, the UN Sustainable Development Group met to assess the impacts and challenges of the global effects of the war in Ukraine. The Group also discussed how to ensure an effective and integrated multilateral response to countries to rescue the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Group comprises the heads of UN entities working on sustainable development.
It also discussed financing for development, including the important role of Official Development Assistance in helping countries mobilize financing for the SDGs.
As the multiple crises test the international development system, the Chair of the Group, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, echoed the Secretary-General’s calls for a structural change in the international financial and economic system of the world so it can truly work in the interest of sustainable development—for all countries and for all people.

YEMEN
The Secretary-General delivered a video message to the pledging event taking place today in The Hague to fund the plan to deal with the FSO Safer, which threatens to spill more than one million barrels of oil into the Red Sea if it is not addressed.
The Secretary-General said that the UN plan for the Safer can stop this disaster before it starts. Now we need the funds to implement the plan, he said, and today’s event is a critical step to preventing a catastrophe that would affect Yemen, the region and the world.
He urged all Yemen’s partners to provide full funding so that work can start immediately. There isn’t a moment to lose, he said.
At that meeting, some $33 million has been raised in new money.

Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/conte....nt/noon-briefing-hig