YouSaid · the spoken record

Inger Andersen

lines on the record
12
first
2020-07-15
most recent
2020-07-15
sittings or episodes
1
sources
un-security-council

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  1. “People who have already been impoverished by conflict would suffer further health and economic impacts. An environmental crisis could also exacerbate regional divisions. Time is running out for us to act in a coordinated manner to prevent a looming environmental, economic and humanitarian catastrophe. It is therefore imperative that access be granted to the FSO SAFER to assess and inspect the current state of the vessel, so that evacuation of the oil can be safely done to prevent such an environmental and human catastrophe.”

    2020-07-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/721 (2020) · source

  2. “The immediate priority remains the same: assessment and light repairs. At the same time, we must nonetheless — in tandem with such prevention efforts — continue to plan for an effective response should an oil spill occur. The United Nations Environment Programme has been working with the International Maritime Organization, the United Nations Office for Project Services, the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and PERSGA to develop a response plan. If the FSO SAFER leaks, potentially spilling four times more oil into the Red Sea than the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which took place in Alaska in 1989, with 275,000 barrels of oil spilled, ecosystems and fisheries would be damaged for an extended period into the future.”

    2020-07-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/721 (2020) · source

  3. “Preventing the crisis from intensifying is really the only option to avoid an environmental and human catastrophe. Despite the difficult operational context, no effort should be spared to first conduct a technical assessment and initial light repairs. That will provide independent evidence of the appropriate next steps while gaining additional time. Given the age and condition to the tanker, it is likely that the safest option will be to remove the vessel. If this is confirmed by the assessment, it means we will need to work with the parties to, first, offload the oil from the FSO SAFER; secondly, tow away the FSO SAFER to a safe location for inspection; and, thirdly, assess and possibly dismantle the FSO SAFER in an environmentally sound manner. These elements are being discussed at different levels with the various shareholders.”

    2020-07-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/721 (2020) · source

  4. “Without assistance, neither the Government of Yemen nor the neighbouring countries currently has the capacity to manage and mitigate the consequences of a massive oil spill and the resulting environmental catastrophe. The international actors, including those from the private sector, that would typically respond to such incidents would be reluctant to deploy their personnel and resources to the conflict zone. Although PERSGA has prepared a draft regional contingency plan, in our assessment that plan would need considerable additional support to be tested, and further developed in order to be implemented in the event of an incident. In addition, the coronavirus disease crisis has relegated the oil spill issue to further down the priority list of the States of the region.”

    2020-07-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/721 (2020) · source

  5. “It would also impact the movement of the more than 20,000 ships that pass through the Red Sea each year, potentially crippling one of the busiest commercial routes in the world. An operational response to any oil spill would need to include containment and recovery of the oil at sea and a shoreline clean-up and subsequent disposal of the resulting contaminated material. Even if the response activities were to be initiated immediately after the oil spill event, it would nonetheless take years for the ecosystems and the economies to recover. The conflict in Yemen would also impede efforts to address an environmental emergency in a timely and effective manner.”

    2020-07-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/721 (2020) · source

  6. “That is particularly problematic because people who live far away from the oil spill location could be impacted by consuming food coming from the spill-affected area. The Government of Yemen has published an assessment on the environmental risks posed by the FSO SAFER. Modelling of a potential oil spill has also been undertaken with the Mutual Aid Centre of the Regional Organization for the Conservation of the Environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (PERSGA). Although it is the west coast of Yemen that would be the worst affected by far, the impact of any oil spill would also quickly extend to neighbouring Red Sea countries, including Djibouti, Eritrea and Saudi Arabia. An oil spill in the Red Sea would also affect demand for fish from the entire Red Sea.”

    2020-07-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/721 (2020) · source

  7. “That model further projects that 500 square kilometres of agricultural land along the shore in Yemen would be affected, resulting in a $70 million loss in production, 3.25 million farmers hit by crop loss and over 8,000 water wells placed at risk of contamination. The health impacts of hydrocarbons on humans have been well studied and range from skin irritation to cancer. In the case of an oil spill situation, some compounds of the hydrocarbons could bioaccumulate in living organisms, such as shellfish, and could become more concentrated along the food chain. Humans may become exposed to concentrations of those contaminants in food that could be orders of magnitude higher than in the contaminated environment.”

    2020-07-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/721 (2020) · source

  8. “With regard to fisheries along the Red Sea coast of Yemen, 100 per cent would be affected in the early days, and the cost could rise to $1.5 billion over the course of 25 years. The closure of Al-Hudaydah port for five to six months could result in a 200 per cent increase in fuel prices in Yemen for several months. Food prices would likely double and traders currently based in Al-Hudaydah port would need to partially shift their operations to Aden port, which would struggle to accommodate the additional volume. Further atmospheric dispersion modelling completed in 2020, whereby the entire cargo is consumed by fire between July and September, projects that more than 8.4 million people would be exposed to harmful levels of air pollutants.”

    2020-07-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/721 (2020) · source

  9. “It is estimated that a total of 28 million people rely on the natural resources of the Red Sea and the coastal zone for their livelihoods. Beyond the impact on nature, therefore, an oil spill or an explosion would have a massive impact on the livelihoods and the health of the people relying on the area’s natural resources, including fisheries. Independent experts were recently commissioned to model worst-case scenarios involving an oil spill and explosion from the FSO SAFER. Among the possible scenarios, the study found that an oil spill at any time of the year would pose an immense threat to livelihoods. But the worst situation would occur if the oil spill happened during the period of July to September, given prevailing currents and winds. The key findings of the modelling project impacts along the following lines.”

    2020-07-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/721 (2020) · source

  10. “Secondly, an explosion and fire on board, caused by accidental ignition of gas accumulated in the cargo tanks, results in a catastrophic scenario, with massive leakage of most or all of the oil into the sea. An oil spill or explosion in the Red Sea could have a serious, long-lasting environmental impact. The Red Sea is one of the most important repositories of biodiversity on the planet. Its waters support internationally important species, including marine mammals, sea turtles, and seabirds. The coastal marine environments of the region consist of arid coastal zones, coastal wetlands, mangroves, seagrass and coral reefs, which constitute the basis of much of the region’s unique biodiversity, its fisheries production and its conservation and recreational value.”

    2020-07-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/721 (2020) · source

  11. “Its condition is deteriorating daily, increasing the potential for an oil spill. If that happens, it will cause an environmental catastrophe, with an impact on ecosystems and the lives of, potentially, 28 million people who rely on those ecosystems for their livelihoods. As a consequence, it is not unlikely that it would also contribute to a deterioration of security in the region, as the resources upon which the population relies would become polluted, scarce and contested. The following two scenarios are considered increasingly likely. First, corrosion and lack of maintenance of the FSO SAFER for an extended period of time leads to some of the oil leaking into the sea.”

    2020-07-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/721 (2020) · source

  12. “The Red Sea environment and its people are currently seriously exposed to the risk of a massive oil leakage from the FSO SAFER, a floating storage and offloading unit that is anchored 4.8 nautical miles off Ras Isa, Yemen. The FSO SAFER contains an estimated 1,148,000 barrels of Marib Light crude oil. Should the situation get out of control, it will directly affect millions of people in a country that is already enduring the world’s largest humanitarian emergency. It will destroy entire ecosystems for decades and extend beyond borders. However, in this bleak picture, there is one bright spot. This disaster is entirely preventable — if we act fast. The United Nations possesses the capacity to intervene and resolve the problem. Allow me to provide some background. The FSO SAFER has not been maintained since 2015.”

    2020-07-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/721 (2020) · source