 leave the fact out that flooding will come and wash away health facilities that could be the whole lifeline for people living in very vulnerable communities. You can leave the fact out that water would make a road possible and impossible, which make it very difficult for health relief and for education facilities to be able to get to refugee camp. And I think when you think about the climate crisis, there is no way we leave people out. I think this is the message that I'm trying to bring here, that we need to listen to the voices of communities that are the front line. And we should not just listen to their voices and their challenges, but we need to see them as experts. We know very well that when you're going to turn crisis into communities, they're often the first to respond. They're often the first trying to find solutions to those crises. And I hope that we listen to their voices and we put their voices on the front line and say, we need to unite. There can be no uniting without putting refugee and displaced voices on the front line of trying to find solutions to these challenges because they are leaders. And I hope that as we try to design solutions to these challenges, those solutions are rooted in people, they are people-centered because the climate crisis is a human crisis and we cannot leave out humanity out of it. Thank you very much. It is a human crisis. Thank you, Nial. Turning to you now, James. I met you yesterday. I've heard a lot about your story. As a former South Sudanese refugee, you have returned to your country and have started the Rainmaker Enterprise to implement solar-powered water, supply systems, as a means of local climate adaptation. Could you share, please, James, more about your experience of displacement, your work as well for climate action, and any other key messages you have for our audience as well? Thank you so much. It's such a pleasure to be here, again, reiterating Nial's word. This is a powerful panel, and I'm just so honored to be here to speak alongside them. Unlike Nial, who was born outside of South Sudan, I was actually born and raised in South Sudan during the war and had to flee forcefully. I really wish, my biggest wish when I got to the refugee camp in Kakuma, and seeing the desolate kind of life that refugees live and that I went through as well, I told myself many times that I wish I had the choice to choose if I can move. Any time I meet with people that call themselves migrants and they tell me their stories of how they decided as a family to move to another country, I just admire that. And I wish this should be an opportunity for every human being because there is nothing that is as dehumanizing as actually being forced to leave your home behind, to leave your family, to leave your friends. But the context that I left in, which maybe Nial didn't go through, but he went through his own experiences, that I went through with millions of other Southern Sudanese at the time, was war and suffering. And within the context that we are actually talking about now, climate change didn't start like in 1995. It started way earlier than that. It did not start during the first COP that was launched. It started way before, but then now we are talking about it. I'll just share with you a small anecdote that has inspired me to actually start the work that I'm doing now at Rainmaker Enterprise. What inspired me to do the work that I do today was seeing a mixture of conflict and climate change, causing a devastating effect on the population. Climate change happening, droughts, crop failure, and the country is locked off from the rest of the world during the war at the time in 1998. And the famine that came out of that, for those of you who are in the UN system, you may be aware of the Baral Ghazal famine that happened in Sudan during that time. When that happened, I was a young boy at the time. And I saw people die of bullets. I saw people being blown up with bombs. But that was manageable, even as a child. But one thing that I did not get out of my mind up to now was seeing adults dying because of hunger. An adult is stretching his hands or her hands out to a child passing by with a piece of bread in his hand. That is an image that has never left my mind. And this is the reason why I chose to go back to South Sudan to work there to find durable solutions for people that are about to be forced to flee again. We are having a combination of climate and conflict. It's forcing people to flee again multiple times. People that return into the country are forced to flee again and become refugees. Become refugees third time, three times. So this is the main reason why I started Rainmaker Enterprise to implement solar-powered water infrastructure that can enable year-round agriculture for rural communities, as well as provide drinking water to people that are experiencing droughts and floods and all these issues. So thank you so much, James. Thank you so much. And an inspiring story from you tonight. Bismarck, you have founded and are managing as well reusable bags, GH, Ghana, right? Yes, please. To enhance access to eco-friendly alternatives to single-use plastics in Ghana since your return as a migrant from Germany. Could you please share more about your experience as a migrant, how it has inspired your role in climate action and your messages as well to our audience tonight? Thank you very much for this opportunity, I must say. During my time in Germany as a migrant, I got a chance to live with a host family. And this means I was firsthand in touch with the German culture, where my family was living. My host family was living a sustainable life. We go shopping with our plastics. We were with our own baskets. We spend a lot of time reading books, meaning we reduce a lot of screen time and spend also a lot of time together. Looking back home, my home country, Ghana, I thought this is a perfect lifestyle for us, looking at the issues of plastic waste and pollution that we see around us. In Ghana, we have a lot of flood during rain season. We have a lot of issues with malaria, which is a disease. And I thought this is a perfect solution. So with this enthusiasm, I came back to Ghana and then we started a project called Reusable Bags Ghana. And the idea of this project is to find sustainable alternatives to single-use plastics. We're talking about shopping bags. We're talking about packaging for products. And this is what we've been doing as a project. When I came back, I shared the idea with few friends, with family, they say, yeah, this is so ambitious. Why don't you use your degree to do something? But with what I've learned from my host family, it was a lot of energy for me and with great support from IOM and GIZ. We are where we are today, three years producing Reusable Shopping Bags. We've made great impact with education. We go to schools. We teach school kids how to make shopping bags. So just to give you an idea, simple shopping bags that are made from old t-shirts, which are also waste items that we find in Ghana. Because most of these old clothes are shipped in from UK, from Europe, and they end up as waste materials in Ghana. Amazing. So we do this. And today we are working with 52 SMEs, providing them sustainable packaging solutions. And also with schools that we train, we have organizations that we are influencing their culture. We now have some companies who work with that are promoting sustainable alternatives, like using reusable bottles in their office spaces, having lunch boxes that they use for lunch, and not using single-use plastics. Today, I'm here not just as an advocate for a sustainable lifestyle, but also a voice for other youths and to let our leaders know that it is time that we focus on policies that provide or support sustainable alternative to single-use plastic. And it's ready to mention that our project is, I mean, I'm a laureate for the Migrants for Climate Action. This is IOM, CVF, and then GFMD partnership project which aims to promote works that migrants are doing with regards to climate action. And also to highlight here the first laureate from Benin who works in promoting sustainability in his community and also the third laureate, Ilak, from the Philippines. So today, we want to let our leaders know that it is time. We are on a crossroad and time is ticking, and it is important to focus on looking for alternatives to single-use plastics and also making investments to support alternatives to single-use plastic. Thank you. They are all here to support you. Thank you so much. Thanks, Bismarck. We are jumping now to a different context, the Pacific, Corny. You are a youth climate leader from the Marshall Islands and are working with the organization Jojicum, which means you're home in Marshallese. Could you share more about your experience of climate change in your community, your role as well in local climate action and your messages to our audience as well? Waiting for you. Thank you so much. So in the Marshall Islands, we've experienced a lot of issues due to climate change. Just like everyone else, we all have a common issue with climate change. We deal with sea level rise. Our home is basically two meters above sea level, and we see these effects every day. When we go outside, whenever we have places to be, we see these in our backyards because our home is a strip of land speckled with neighboring atolls. And the rural areas, they experience more of these issues drastically. And I feel like working with the communities, especially the youth, it has brought a light to the issues, and it obviously, it brings light to these issues so that we may be able to work together and to see the common ground of what is happening in front of us. And I feel like we really are rooted in our homes because it encompasses our traditional values, our culture, and yeah, that's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you so much, Karni. I think you said a lot, by the way, just to let you know, and everyone is hearing you here. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you as well to our frontline communities, representatives. We invite you to take your seats in the audience as we will now listen to a performance who's performing. Let's see. I would now like to introduce you to Amy Mahmoud. She is a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. She is an activist, an author, and a world champion slam poet. She will share with us tonight a few remarks and her new poem, Song of the Earth. Amy, the stage is yours. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. It was an honor to share the stage with you and also just to be here. I'll be brief with the remarks and go to the poem. What I want to start with is I can tell you as many stats as you want. I can say that 70%, more than 70% of refugees are from climate-vulnerable countries like Yemen, Afghanistan, the DRC, or more. But it won't speak as loudly as if I just tell you some of the experiences that we've had. My dad is from a village called Jack. It doesn't exist anymore. And due to a combination of climate and conflict, not only is our village where he is from not existing anymore, but the region itself is slowly disappearing over time. People who lose home, refugees, displaced people, state-based people, I'm an Indigenous person, and even more, they're not only on the front lines of the crisis, but at the forefront of change. This is what I saw in Cameroon with Luca and Leatu and a lot of the incredible work that's being done. Refugees created and led incredible initiatives from a reforestation project that has hundreds of thousands of trees planted, to bio-brickette projects, or cocoon technology, which I saw myself and allowed us to plant trees even in the dry season. They're forging partnerships and creating exemplary leadership, the kind that we need to actually make this change happen that we're talking about here at COP. So if we're doing the work on the front lines and making the real change on the ground, then why are we constantly left behind? To me, it means a lot that you're seeing us, and now I invite you to work with us, to create and co-architect our solutions together and put vulnerable people at the forefront of change, because this is something that's so valuable to us. If we continue to be excluded in policy, we will continue to be excluded in practice, and that is the difference between life and death for our communities. It's not just words, it's not just papers. To us, it is a difference between existing here, now, and in the future. We can't afford to wait any longer. I studied anthropology, molecular cellular development of biology, and I got a certificate in global health at Yale, and I'm going into medicine, but I choose poetry because I believe when you speak to somebody politically, they'll respond politically. If you speak academically, they'll respond academically. If you speak with hate, they'll respond with hate, but if you speak with your humanity, they will respond with their humanity. And that's why I wrote this poem, The Song of the Earth. It's dreaming of a day where we can go back and rebuild Jack and reforest it with the technology that's being created by refugees on the ground. So this is The Song of the Earth, and I invite you to... Is it working? Okay. I invite you to respond with your humanity. Thank you so much, everyone. Okay. The Song of the Earth is sung in morning dues and honeysuckle tones. It's resting in the bends of the Nile and waving across the leaves of a weeping willow. The Song of the Earth is in the depth of our bones and crescendos when a sprout first breaks through the soil to reach toward that painted sky or a child takes its first breath. It whispers when the birds fly to their second home in the winter and wails when some of them don't return. The Song of the Earth is relentless. It is a retelling of warnings of old and a cry for help to those who still listen for it, who still feel it resonating deep beneath the concrete. It is a presence, elementing generations in the making, a pleading to remember who we are. I didn't know what I was missing until I went back home and saw the clouds high above the skies of Darfur. I tried to make sense of it, lingering day after day when I finally asked my uncle Bakri, he says, that's not a cloud, it's the Milky Way. If you're ever lost, just follow the Milky Way home. How could I explain to him just how lost I was? How could I make him understand just how far we strayed from the knowledge of our ancestors? How could I tell him that the sky hadn't been blue in a very long time and the stars hadn't shown past a few in years and getting fresh air was a luxury and experiencing nature a distant dream for most of us and that the Milky Way, the sight of it, a birthright I did not know was mine, was a stranger to my eyes? That when did we become trespassers? When did we forget how to listen to the world around us? When did we lose the connection to what makes us our home? We are as much a part of nature as a sapling or a waterfall. Earth and inheritance shared by all of us, but no longer equally. People and planet are one and the same. Forgetting this will be our downfall. My friend Forrest told me that deep beneath the layers of the Sahel and all across our world, mycelia connect everything, like the neurons in one organism. I wonder when we lost the power to feel those signals. We, absentee members of nature, connected in crisis, thousands lost in Libya, Morocco, land, sea and sky, human lives caught in between, human lives caught in the balance, firestorms in Hawaii, earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, hurricane, Idalia, floods in New York and China, cyclones, evacuations of hundreds of thousands. The thing about resilience is it becomes harder to do without your tools. My people, we draw on home, but we have been forced from home. We draw on community, but disaster has torn us apart. The earth, it draws on balance. All things in homeostasis, but we have broken that balance. It isn't hubris that makes us believe we can possess the earth, that we can take and give nothing back. It is forgetfulness. Memories were held in the hands of our elders before they had the chance to pass it down. When the earth stood still, we had a moment to remember. The deer removed from the equation there was earth had a chance to recover. There were deer in the city streets, the sky shown blue as the sea once was, the birds came home and the waters cleared and the ozone hole began to close. Seeing how the earth grows in our absence became a reminder that the earth responds. So can you hear it? The song of the earth. Can you feel the falcons calling? Can you sense the wind carrying the voices of the trees? Can you taste the drops of long-awaited rain and smell the cooling clay as it seeps below? Earth still works. We just stopped doing our part. My mind may forget, but my body remembers the things my grandmother knew. What nature gives us and more importantly, what we must give back. The roads our ancestors walked, memorized like the veins on the back of our hands, moving in harmony, sharing a destination and a source. When I stand in the desert, I now know that the sand has memories of greenery and beneath it all dreams of return. What connects us is so much more than desperation or loss or fear of catastrophe. What connects us is our shared memory of our home planet, our love and fear of water, how we gaze at the stars and the stars gaze back. It's in our laughter and the home we carry in our heart. It's in our voices and the stories we tell with our souls. It's in our future and the paths we will forge together. It's in this moment and our chance to begin again. Our chance to learn, to love something without possessing it. To see a bird in flight and not cage it. To marvel at the earth and not claim it. To become who we used to be. Lovers of all things green and warm. My godfather Timothy reminds me that a river that forgets its roots will soon dry up. This is your reminder. Home is calling. Will you answer the call? Thank you, everyone. Stage our second panel from various regions of the world. First from the Pacific, then from Africa, from North America, and finally, our dear hosts. His Excellency Dr. Tapugao Falifu, the Director of Programs and Initiatives of the Pacific Islands Forum, Zara Khan, the Director General of the IOM International Organization for Migration, Ms. Amy Pope, Commissioner Safia Hassan Muhammad, who leads Somalia National Commission for Refugees and Internally-Displaced Persons. His Excellency, Worknay Gibiou, Executive Secretary of the Ingovernmental or Intergovernmental Authority on Development in Eastern Africa, EGAT. And her Excellency, Julieta Noys, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration in the United States. UN Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. Filippo Grandi. I'm really so happy having you all on this session. Our esteemed panelists will be speaking to the challenges and solutions linked to climate change and human mobility from their national, regional, and international perspectives and provide concrete examples of commitments for inclusive solutions. This is what we really need to hear tonight. Understanding that human mobility itself is an incredible, complex topic and very context-specific, country-led and locally-led action scheme. We are going to now turn, first, to context in the Pacific, then Africa, and we'll close off with the United States. But first, your Excellency, Dr. Tapugao Falifu, what are the impacts of climate change on human mobility into value? How will the new framework on climate mobility in the Pacific address these dynamics? Thank you very much, Madam Moderator. Let me begin by extending my Prime Minister's sincere apology for not making it to this important event. And I am here to talk on his behalf. The situation of climate migration or climate mobility into value is one that is quite unique. And I can only speak for the situation that we have in Tuvalu, part of which has been alluded to by the youth from the Marshall Island who spoke earlier. But for climate mobility in the Pacific, especially from low-lying airtoes like Tuvalu, we are very much vulnerable to the impact of climate change, particularly the impact of sea-level rise. We have been hearing a lot of talks about existential threat. And I know that each of us, we have our own definition of what is existential threat. But for us, low-lying airtoes of merely two meters above sea level, the rising sea is not only threatening our daily lives, but it is threatening our very existence. And we define that as a true existential threat to us in low-lying airtoes. The situation in Tuvalu is one that the ongoing or the slow onset of the impact of sea-level rise to our coastal areas give us no other space to move into. For other island countries in the Pacific, they may have other places to move in land. But for us in low-lying airtoes, if you are to move from the coast, because of the encroaching erosion of the coast, the further you move in, the closer you are to the other side of the island. So for us, we have no other place within our country to move into. And this is something that I hope, as we discuss the narratives of climate displacement, we need to understand that we have different contexts through which we try to tell our stories of the impacts of climate change or sea-level rise to us. So for us in Tuvalu, that is something that we are trying to find ways where we can help our people. I suppose most of us may have heard of the recent unprecedented bilateral agreement that Tuvalu and Australia signed at the margin of the Pacific Island Forum Leaders' Meeting in the Cook Islands, a special pathway of climate mobility that we in Australia have agreed on. And that is part of our efforts in trying to address the displacement that our people are potentially facing. Back in 2016, our Prime Minister then made an announcement during the signing of the Paris Agreement in the United Nations General Assembly that it is about time that we have to come up with a resolution specifically for climate displacement population, something to the tune of the Convention on Refugee. And we hope that such a resolution can be reached because us in the Pacific, especially us from low-lying air tolls, we are looking at ways where we can help our people from the impact of sea-level rise that will potentially displace the entire population of Tuvalu. Thank you so much, Doctor. It was really fruitful. And thanks for these great reflections on the context in the Pacific and everyone here was listening. I have to move to you, Doctor. I know that you're in a hurry and you have to leave. Dear Director, General of IOM, Miss Amy Pope, I am sure you will agree first. Our speakers have been presenting a rich tapestry of views, of solutions, and calls to action as well that now bring us to this final segment of our events. Can you please share your reflections and your highlights as well from the international level and on the work ahead, including COP? Yes. So first of all, I apologize that I will have to leave after my intervention. I'll be going to catch a flight out. Second of all, I just want to say thank you for hosting this very, very important conversation. And to say next year, my goal is we get a whole day at COP29 focused on the impact of climate mobility and how climate change is displacing communities around the world. Can we make that happen? So you all have heard the bad news, right? We know 20 million people were displaced last year by climate impact alone, right? And we know that hundreds of millions of people live in communities that are extremely vulnerable to climate change. And we know that if we don't take action, those hundreds of millions of people will face situations like those described by the incredible men and women who are up on the stage earlier today. But you know, I'm an optimist at heart, so I don't like to give you just bad news. And the truth is, there is good news, right? There is good news. Now, the first bit of good news is that it doesn't have to turn out that way. In fact, according to the World Bank, 80% of people can avoid displacement with proactive action. And what does that mean? It means, of course, that the countries involved in the negotiations today need to get their act together to control emissions, right? That's number one. But number two, it means that we can work with communities to help build their resilience to climate change and to help provide the tools so that they can manage the impacts of what is happening in their countries today, right? So that means if we look at someone like James, right? An innovator who is in South Sudan actively working to help manage the water, that kind of action with the support, with the resources, with the bright minds can help keep communities in place, can give people choices, right? It also means that we can do more to slow down the impacts, for example, using more innovative agricultural techniques, right? So there are a whole range of things that we really need to be innovating to focus on how will this enable people to stay. It means working with a private sector who are real innovators here, especially to forecast which communities are gonna be most at risk and build solutions with those communities first. But for me, the real game changer and the exciting place to be working is to actually use mobility as an adaptation strategy. That means we recognize the tremendous benefits that come from when people migrate, right? We know it, those of us who live in the United States, we have a rich history of migration, right? We know that when migration is working well, communities benefit, the migrant herself benefits, the community she comes from will benefit. So let's start to use it as an adaptation strategy. That doesn't mean that we use forced migration, right? But we anticipate which communities are going to be displaced. Where can we start to build out pathways so that people can get the jobs of the future? So they have the skills they need. And now the reason why this will work is that 30 of the top economies are facing labor shortages just this year and that problem is going to get worse, right? So let's take advantage of the tools we have. There is a youth quake going on in Africa in some of the countries that are facing the most significant challenges as a result of climate change. Let's build opportunities between countries, between regions, across the globe so that we collectively can benefit from the innovation, from the energy, from the entrepreneurial spirit of persons who would otherwise get left behind. Thank you so much for highlighting so clearly how committed IOM is honestly in addressing climate mobility and we look forward to COP 29. Thank you. Thank you. So we wish you a safe flight, Amy, back home. Thank you. Now I have to go back to the Pacific and we have the director of programs and initiatives of the Pacific Islands Forum, Mr. Zarak Khan. So I'm really happy to have you on the panel as well. The Pacific has led the way on the topic of human mobility and climate change over many years, many cops as well. Would you highlight some key achievements and commitments made as well as any lesson learned along the way that may also inspire other regions and what outcomes would you like to see from this COP especially? Thank you very much, modern moderator. I'd just like to thank Dr. Falafel and also Kani and the rest of my Pacific colleagues who are in the room today, it's such an honor to speak after them and also be on this very distinguished panel. I'm representing the Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum who sends his apologies on this very important topic. I think as Dr. Falafel was pointing on a bit earlier, the Pacific is at the forefront of this particular issue. Before I respond to your question in particular, it's important to contextualize the Pacific, especially the island states in the Pacific Islands Forum. We have countries where the population is 1,500 people, new way up to a population of about 10 million people in Papua New Guinea. And so the needs of our people, the needs of our countries, the challenges that they face when it comes to climate change is very wide, very disparate, and very diverse. I've been to Tuvalu and Marshall Islands on multiple occasions. It's a very interesting and very surreal experience when the aircraft is actually landing on the airstrip in Funfuti or in Majuro, where you're actually landing on the airstrip but you cannot see the land because there's water on the left and water on the right. And so as you're landing, you can very much experience and appreciate the challenges that the Marshallese people, the Tuvaluan people, and other Pacific people that live in small island developing states encounter on a daily basis. When king tides come in, the water basically goes into the food gardens, into the homes of a number of different countries. When there are cyclones and climatic events, a lot of our people lose their homes, they have to lean into their savings, they have to rebuild their homes, and it's a constant cycle of catastrophic debt that our people in the Pacific region and other regions that are faced by climatic events face. And so in that context, our Pacific Island Forum leaders approach this issue, trying to avoid future conflict, future issues, especially those that face our young people, so that they're left with the region that has the right policies and the right frameworks, noting the gaps that we have in international law at the moment when it comes to mobility due to climatic events. So we have, for example, countries like Papua New Guinea, where in the Catarat Islands, there has been organized movement of people because of the inundation of seawater that has taken their homes. But unfortunately, we have other sad examples, like in the Swamun Islands, where in the Kail Islands has been submerged completely. And so we have very wide and very different experiences. I must congratulate Tuvalu and other countries that have taken a leadership role, particularly in terms of taking issues to the Pacific Island Forum leaders, where we now have for the first time a declaration recognizing the statehood of countries that will unfortunately be submerged in the future if the world does not take action and return to a 1.5-degree pathway. We also have a declaration agreed to by the Pacific Islands Forum, recognizing the maritime boundaries of our Pacific states, noting that the baselines are now changing because of rising sea levels. Recently, at the meeting Rarotonga a couple of weeks ago, our leaders agreed to the Pacific Regional Mobility Framework, which is the first of its kind in the world. It sets in place rules, procedures, and guidelines, which our countries have come together and agreed to follow in the event some of our states are submerged and are faced with rising sea levels and have to relocate their people. We have countries like Kiribati, for example, that has purchased 5,000 acres of land in Fiji to try and relocate their people in the future if this was to happen. So as you can see, it's a very real and very practical challenge that the Pacific countries are facing. It's not something that's esoteric or theoretical. It's something that our Pacific people encounter on a day-to-day basis. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for this insightful response, Mr. Khan. Thank you. We are now turning to a different context in Africa. Commissioner Safia, we know that Somalia is a country on the front lines of the crisis, facing the worst drought in 40 years and currently under severe flooding as well. From your particular context in Somalia, could you please talk to us about issues, about inclusion, but also about opportunities for solutions and actions you are taking? Thank you, Jeanette. Thanks to panels and participants this evening. It's a great honor for me to be here on behalf of Somali government. Also, I'm honored that my second country, America representatives here, fellow my dear, I felt the pain of being displaced. I am a former displaced, lived and educated in the USA. I went back to my roots in Somalia to make a change, take a part of a solution and become the first deputy national security advisor, served both former president and current president. I wanna show the girls in Africa can lead and make a decision. Thanks to current president for giving me the opportunity to lead the most challenged office being a current commissioner for refugees and ITPs in current situation in Somalia. As you all know, Somalia faces prolonged displacement due to the climate and political instability. Over 3 million IDP, Alina floods worse in this situation. Soon drought is approaching us and there's no really plan for that. One million refugees in neighboring countries, over 30,000 registered refugees is holding Somalia. Also, we have 30 years of communities that are waiting to be registered and are recognized as refugees. Women's and girls are most affected facing challenges of human rights violations, security and reproductive health issues. Climate change is a risky multiplies to the challenges for a child Somalia is facing. Human poverty force display is not the humanitarian crisis in Somalia, but also national security threats and undermines achievements of SDGs in Somalia. Climate security is a real in Somalia, as well as the region, as well as also the world. When I joined the office in July this year, I prioritized returning portfolio. I returned it 700 Somalis, go back to Somalia. I also pushed the law, the framework for a refugee law as well as IDB law act. Then I'm working on integration displacement for refugees and IBDs to take the decision-making for their interests. The Somali government's working for NDB climate policy and NDC, NDB and Empowering Refuge and IDBs to take a big role in decision-making. Inclusivity is a key thematic area to empower women and girls and children thanks to COP President for making full inclusion as pillar for this event. Data for displacement solution are one of the main that I'm pushing it. Technology for transparency and accountability, one of the pillar I'm working on it. All these areas are also informed of our blitz for global compact refugees, which will be presented in the Global Refuge reform for climate action in Somalia are overlooked because of situation is a complex. Somalia as a free child country is at least funded in term of climate change. The laws and damage for fun should be looked from the conflict effect aspect where financial system are here to operate. Climate security is a real. Somalia climate action is Somalia's not only. Support peace in Somalia but also regional and global peace. Thank you. Thank you so much. Many thanks Commissioner Safia for this inspirational perspective on the context of Somalia. Dear Executive Secretary Gebe Yehwoo, am I saying it right? Yes. IGAD has inspired many on the continent with their vision on addressing the impacts of climate change on human mobility. Can you please share with us some of these achievements and the lesson learned as well? Thank you very much. First and foremost, I want to thank the organizers and also in fact the host country, the United Arab Emirates. My sister, Rim here. I saw her after a long time. So also it's very important for the young voices who represented the refugees who made a very, very practical presentation here and the poem which we heard is very important as well. So I want to commend all of you. As I came from the region of 300 million people out of that, more than 20 million of them are refugees, internally displaced people. I can say a lot of things on the situation. IGAD or I can use simultaneously Horn of Africa is the home of one of the largest refugees and internally displaced population. I can mention the data. 90 million displaced person. This is an average before Sudan is conflict and five million refugees, 14 million internally displaced peoples and seven out of 10 biggest refugee camps. My friend, Filippo Grande knows very well this he was traveling to each and every one of the camps. So these are one of the biggest displacement of humanity is displaced in our region. In terms of numbers and in terms of that, we are very rich, a challenge, but that challenge is not only a challenge, an opportunity as well. Additionally, a significant number of people, especially women and children are the victims on this thing. At this point, it is a must to mention about the challenge that we are our brothers and sisters facing in the Republic of Sudan. Millions of our Sudanese brothers and sisters are displaced internally or they live their own country to the neighboring countries or beyond. This is a catastrophe that we have seen in our eyes, not less than one year. Before that Sudanese was one of the regional country which hosts more than two, three million refugees and internally displaced people. So that thing has changed and now Sudanese themselves are refugees and internally displaced people. This thing can one way or another way related with climate change and conflict. I cannot differentiate which one triggered the other that we subject to discussion, but these are very closely interrelated issues that has really challenged our region. So how we are trying to tackle this challenge as you have asked me the most important thing, COP is by itself one of international initiative that will try to tackle this challenge that is the root cause to tackle the root cause of the problem and also as a region eager and member states they have a common action declarations protocols that we won't work very closely. At the same time we have a very good platform with our partners the UNHCR and IOM which we work in different platforms that we have achieved. I can remember that the issue of South Sudan and other initiatives in Somalia that we were working with my friend, Philip O'Grande to tackle and to resolve some of the issues. The most important the key word here is since we are a regional organization it's a coordination and working together. So a key issue is how to bring, mobilize our efforts, knowledge and finance together to tackle some of the challenges that we are facing. The way forward when we look forward we are expecting to go to Geneva on this issue next month that is also another very important thing that is organized by, yes next week. Oh my God, it's very fast. So that will be also a very important event that will help us to discuss which is organized by UNHCR and Philip O'Grande under the leadership of Philip O'Grande. So what I'm saying, this is my conclusion. We are highly challenged and still we are in that challenge in terms of climate change and the issue of mobility vis-a-vis the refugee and internally displaced. The solution for this is, this is one solution, the COP that mobilizing all international efforts, the continental effect, as well as the regional vis-a-vis all multilateral institutions who are working with us and we are working with them closely. So that is the way forward. Two key words. Thank you very much, yes. Finance and efforts. Yes. And they should be together. Thank you. Yeah, of course. Thank you so much. Turning to you now assistant secretary, Julieta Noyes. Right, right? The United States has been at the forefront of experiencing the adverse effects of climate change, including on human mobility and also at inventing and solution globally. Can you please share with us what is the US doing to respond to the impacts of climate change on human mobility and what more needs to be done? Thanks, Shantel, and I'm so grateful to the COP presidency for bringing us together and focusing on human mobility as a priority here at COP 28 and for your leadership, Madam Minister, on today's Relief Recovery and Peace Declaration. And I also want to thank my friends, High Commissioner Gandhi and Director General Pope for hosting tonight. And I am so glad that we began tonight with the reflections from the people with lived experiences. It gives us a framework for what we're discussing tonight. And their courage, their experiences inspire us to do more. So what is it that we're doing in the United States to try and do more and tackle these issues? So we're laser focused on three key areas of action, limiting the global temperature rise, accelerating progress on climate adaptation, and strengthening global cooperation. These three priorities are defining our efforts at home and internationally. We're working hard to meet President Biden's ambitious Paris Agreement target to cut one billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions within the next seven years under the parameters of the Inflation Reduction Act. We're also working to advance climate resilience and reduce global emissions. So President Biden launched an emergency plan for adaptation and resilience, which we call PREPARE. Through PREPARE, we are prioritizing getting people the climate information that they need to make good decisions, advancing the resilience of food, water, health, and infrastructure systems, and bringing in more partners, including the private sector, to mobilize resources and innovation for adaptation. Across the US government, we are committed to assisting the most vulnerable in responding to the consequences of climate change. Now we're using the White House report on climate change and migration, the first of its kind from a national government, as our roadmap. And through it, we are pursuing policies and programs and partnerships. And now I want to give you some examples of the things that we're doing. So specifically, the US government is advancing observations and models and forecasts that enable us to monitor and get early warning for floods, droughts, cyclones, and extreme temperatures, as well as for food insecurity, conflict, and humanitarian needs. For example, over the last two years, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network has increased its investment and partnerships to better understand the connections between the changing climate, food and water security, fragility, and conflict. Separately, the US Geological Survey is delivering geospatial data to first responders during disaster events, such as the 2022 volcanic eruption in Tonga and the 2023 flooding in South Africa. Our adaptation and resilience initiatives also support actions to build climate resilience. The US Agency for International Development is supporting development programming to address climate-related migration. Through its Asia Resilience Cities program, USAID works with local governments to promote sustainable climate resilient urban growth with a focus on migrants and informal settlement dwellers. In Somalia, USAID has a Building Durable Solutions to Displacement program that provides access to land, housing, and jobs for displaced people displaced by climate disasters. The bureau that I lead at the State Department is supporting refugees, internally displaced persons, conflict victims, migrants, stateless persons, and host communities through our contributions to UNHCR, IOM, and other humanitarian agencies. And I call on all of the participants at this conference to raise their contributions to these vital agencies in support of this work. I'll give you some examples of the work that we're doing. We've been helping Rohingya refugees in southern Bangladesh to mitigate the effects of monsoon storms and flooding landslides. We're helping local authorities in Central America to better understand the impact of climate change and migration flows. And we're supporting the governments in Angola, Djibouti, Libya, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia, and other countries in including migrants and refugees in their disaster preparedness and response plans. And that's really important. Refugees can't be forgotten. Migrants can't be forgotten in these plans. So we're meeting climate-affected populations and migrants and their host communities wherever they are around the world. With our support, vulnerable groups in the Pacific are getting labor mobility assistance. Our partners in the Horn of Africa are plugging gaps in climate and displacement-related policy and data. Coastal communities in India are bolstering their climate resilience. And local leaders in the Brazilian Amazon are getting the resources that they need to confront migration, climate change, and health challenges. Now tackling the effects of climate change on mobility requires a concerted global effort and strong, innovative, energetic global leadership. And that's why the United States nominated Amy Pope as the director general for IOM. And she has made tackling these issues right out of the gate, one of her key priorities. And we appreciate the leadership of all of our international organization and civil society partners in the intersection between human mobility and climate change. Philippa, we are so proud of the work that we do with UNHCR as well as you advance climate action that is grounded in data that is driven locally and that's inclusive of refugees and displaced people on the move. There is no silver bullet here. There are no easy answers. Finding solutions for people on the move due to climate change will take hard work. Across societies and sectors and specializations, we need to keep supporting humanitarian responses, sustainable development, durable solutions, and human security in the climate context. The scale of this challenge eclipses any single country's financial resources. We need innovative approaches that bring all experts to the table alongside the people who are most affected. And that means bringing in the private sector, subnational actors, and refugees and migrants themselves. The only way forward is together. Thanks. Together, again, is the key word. Thank you so much for sharing those forward-looking ideas with us tonight. And now, turning, time is over, but the most important part is you tonight. Our co-organizer of today, UNHCR Grandi, can you please share your reflections and highlights on what we have heard here today and also your perspectives from the international level and on the work ahead, including the COP, we are all listening. No pressure. With pressure. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Saldal. And thank you all for coming here. And thank you, Minister Diyarim, for staying. I know how many things you have to do and you stayed throughout the whole meeting. Very much appreciated. Like, of course, we appreciate the hospitality of the UAE and having made all this possible. You know, like Koliata just said, I was left with the first images we heard from people affected telling their experiences. I was left with two strong images. One was from Nial when he spoke about schools being washed away in the refugee camp where he lived in Kakuma in Kenya. And one was from Karni. She mentioned her house being two meters above sea level in the Marshall Islands. You know, I think that it is important to carry with us these real images because people are, you know, there's a lot of talk here in Dubai and there should be about the big issues. But in the end, it's about people being affected in their most intimate daily lives by climate change and affected in a manner. This is the theme of our evening talk that obliges them to go away, to abandon their house, to abandon their school, their work, everything that is familiar to them. I've been thinking a lot in the three days I've spent here about how this link between human mobility and climate change manifests itself. It's like a triple challenge, right? Climate change very often, like we heard from our, from Warkner, from the commissioner of the Somali government, very often it's there is a combination of climate change and conflict that acts as a driver but also rising sea levels. These are the drivers that push people out so they're impacted one time. More often than not, the people that are displaced this way end up in situations that are as fragile as that most refugees are in very fragile areas, fragile from the climate point of view. So they have to face another host of challenges. And then, because we're talking about people on the move, most of the people on the move, there is some wrong perception sometimes, want to go back home. But they cannot go back home because that return, we heard it and it's so good that you do what you do in Somalia, that return is also affected by fragility. So three times climate change combined with other drivers affect people on the move. So of course, all of the people speaking tonight have given some important answers. I agree with Julieta, there's no silver bullet but there can be many silver bullets or bullets. No, let's not talk about bullets but you know what I mean. There can be many ways to address this situation. The fundamentals we know are the things that in other holes of this COP28 are being talked about, the 1.5 degrees, the elimination of fossil fuels and subsidies to fossil fuels, the creation of alternative sources of energy. That's the big picture. Now let's be very clear, if that big picture doesn't make progress, we won't make progress in our more specific issues that we're talking about. So we need that progress. We need leaders to make the right decisions and we're observing with baited breath what's going on here in Dubai because that's the life of the planet in the future, including addressing the mobility element. Now of course, the mobility element is an important one and I'm very grateful to the UAE and to Egypt last year because that's the first time when COP27, this became an issue or was an issue being discussed and now we have a whole day dedicated to health, relief, recovery and peace. This is a great achievement I think and a great stepping stone on which we can build. We need more and we need more voices of those that are directly impacted like we heard tonight. They really need to become a leading driver of the response because they know what this experience is like and they know what they need and what is needed to address it and it's still very difficult. Many people, many refugees could not come here because they cannot travel that easily, get visas that easily. So this is a reality that we also need to face. Another key message tonight, I think Chantal if I have a few more minutes is really crucial, strengthen the resilience of the people. This is what adaptation is about I think to use that important word in a human mobility context and that's why we need to work with frontline communities with organizations led by refugees, by displaced people, by young people in particular and of course nobody can tell this, can say this better than Amy Mahmoud. She spoke about how the refugees themselves are the creators of their own resilience. They just need support, they need space to do that but I think that they should be the leaders. A few other pieces of conclusion or advice. One is we need governments to have good policies and what the executive secretary of EGAP, my friend Workmer, what we've been working on for years now in the Horn of Africa is inclusion of refugees and displaced in education, in health, in creation of jobs. We really need to make sure that people on the move are included in climate action plans. I think this is our next challenge in these various areas that we have been working about. You know, some governments are really ahead. Kenya has a new policy. We're working very closely with the US government and other governments on that to solve the issue of more than 600,000 refugees in their country by basically making them, as President Druto says, part of the Kenyan community. So another type of solutions but to do that one of the key issues that Kenya has to address is climate action because refugees are in the most climate exposed areas of the country in near Somalia and near South Sudan and also near conflict. So this is very, very good examples and very important. And then we need to grow partnerships. I said many times in these three days when, you know, because climate is becoming such an important part of what we do, we really need to go one step further in building real partnerships. The climate track, the humanitarian track and the development track yesterday, I was in an important discussion where this was discussed. They need to work more closely together. We're so often on separate tracks. And I think that we need to do that more systematically and more together. This work together comes back all the time. I mean UNHCR and IOM, we are joined up because we both work on human mobility with the great support of the US and other donors. But we need to link up more with development organization with the private sector that can play a fundamental function in supporting, for example, in our programs, solarization. We work essentially with private sector organizations that it's not just about funding, it's about expertise, technology, business models. It's a real leadership role that they can play. And regional organization. I really, you know, I want to pay tribute to what IGAT has done in one of the most affected regions, both in terms of climate and displacement, which is the Horn of Africa, because they've been very, very important and I hope other regional organizations will follow soon. Of course, just to conclude what my organization, UNHCR, can do, we have several contributions. We're not a climate organization, but we need to deal with the climate factor and we need to become more and more climate smart because this is really the future for any type of work. We have a normative role. I think it was mentioned by Ambassador of Tuvalu. We have a normative role because of course, even in situations of rising sea levels, the risks are there, for example, not just of refugee, but also of statelessness. So I think, and this is another area of expertise for my organization, so we have a normative role. We have a role of protection expertise to give to states that are facing this displacement, especially when people cross borders, but we have a big operational role, like IOM, like other organizations, in addressing the humanitarian aspects of these movements, but also linking up more and more with development actors and building the resilience in so many different ways, working on water, working on sanitation, working on shelter, working on sustainable energy, many, many sectors in which we can contribute, but we need to link up with the development actors and maybe a small detail, but important, we ourselves need to reduce our carbon footprint. You know, humanitarian operations in remote areas have a big carbon footprint, inevitably, but there are many ways that we can reduce this solarizer operation. The private sector has been fantastic. The IKEA Foundation has given us $27 million to help us reduce the carbon footprint of just the UNHCR's humanitarian operations, and I think that this is a great model moving to the future. Finally, to repeat what we heard from IGAD a few minutes ago, next week, UNHCR, let me do a little publicity here, is organizing the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva just after the COP, and that is a place where we're asking everybody, states, organizations, regional, international, national, refugee-led organizations, civil society, private sector, academia, to contribute, to pledge, make commitments for the next four years, till the next refugee forum, and we trust that the enormous wealth of knowledge, of experience, of storytelling that has been, is accumulating here in Dubai can also become an important foundation on which to build further pledges in the sphere of refugees. All the best, High Commissioner, and thank you so much for sharing with us the clear commitment from UNHCR and this strong call as well, called to action for COP28. With these final reflections, we are already at the end of our event tonight. Thank you very much to all the speakers, organizers, co-hosts, and interpreters as well, technicians who have crafted this event for us today, to the audience, if you would like to hear more from displaced people themselves, I would encourage you to join the UN side events taking place tomorrow, and titled, Displaced People, Taking Action on Loss and Damage at 11.30 until one in the blue zone as well, in the SE Room 3. I am wishing everyone tonight a good evening in Dubai, and a successful COP that includes human mobility and leaves no one behind. Thank you so much. High Commissioner, thank you so much. It was a pleasure.