UN to protect statehood of disappearing island nations
Video. The United Nations General Assembly will endorse, by consensus, a landmark declaration aimed at ensuring that countries whose territory may become partly or entirely uninhabitable because of rising sea levels do not lose their statehood or their place in the international system.
Updated: 24/09/2026 - 9:05 GMT+2
The United Nations General Assembly will endorse this Thursday, by consensus, a landmark declaration aimed at ensuring that countries whose territory may become partly or entirely uninhabitable because of rising sea levels do not lose their statehood or their place in the international system.
For the small island states at the frontline of the climate crisis, this is about much more than disappearing beaches. Rising seas threaten the physical territory on which states have traditionally based their sovereignty.
The declaration seeks to make clear that a changing coastline should not automatically mean the disappearance of a country as a legal and political entity.
But sea level rise will also have an effect in Europe "Every centimetre of sealevel rise will be translated in stronger storms, in stronger high tides, will be translated in many economic losses. Because the ports will need to be adjusted and adapted. Some of the airports may need to moved", said Kamal Amakrane, Managing Director of the UN’s Rising Nations Initiative.
