Our world is at risk and paralyzed, we cannot continue like this, says Secretary-General

“We need hope and more. We need action,” he said on Tuesday. General secretary in the opening speech of the high-level segment of the United Nations General Assembly debate, urging world leaders to collaborate based on goodwill and trust to set the course straight.

António Guterres warned of the “extremely difficult” moments and the deepening divisions that the world is experiencing. “Inequalities are increasing. The challenges are spreading,” he noted.

In an auditorium that once again welcomes heads of state and government after two years of virtual debate due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Guterres reviewed the great crises that plague humanity.

“Let’s not delude ourselves. We navigate rough waters. A winter of global discontent is coming. The cost of living crisis is raging. Confidence crumbles. Inequalities skyrocket. Our planet is burning,” she noted.

These realities generate great suffering in people, especially in the most vulnerable, who always bear the brunt.

.@antonioguterres warned at the opening of the #UNGA that the world “is in danger and paralyzed”, due to the divisions that prevent action in the face of “crises that threaten the very future of humanity and the destiny of our planet”. pic.twitter.com/H9KrPo8re2
— UN News (@UNNews) September 20, 2022

a paralyzed world

“The United Nations Charter and the ideals it represents are in danger. We have a duty to act”, urged the leader of the Organization.

However, he lamented, the world is paralyzed.

“We are stuck in a colossal global dysfunction. The international community is neither ready nor willing to face the enormous and dramatic challenges of our era. These crises threaten the very future of humanity and the fate of our planet,” he noted.

Guterres referred to the geopolitical divisions that undermine the Security Council, international law, confidence in democratic institutions and all forms of international cooperation. “We can’t go on like this,” she pointed out, alluding to the war in Ukraine and the multiplication of conflicts in the world.

He warned of the dangerous direction that international relations are taking: “At one point, they seemed to be heading towards a G-2 world; but now we run the risk of ending up with the G-nothing: neither cooperation, nor dialogue, nor collective solution of the problems”.

The UN chief cited the widespread destruction and serious violations of international law occurring in the context of the war in Ukraine and called the reports about the graves in Izyum disturbing.

However, he considered that there are some rays of hope, including the rooting of the peace process in Colombia.

Climate change relegated to the background

Speaking of the climate crisis, Guterres asserted that it is the problem that defines our time. “It must be the priority of all governments and organizations. However, it is being relegated to the background, despite the overwhelming support of public opinion”, he deplored.

“We are headed for a climate disaster. I recently saw it with my own eyes in Pakistan, where a third of the country has been submerged by a monsoon of excessive fury. We are seeing it everywhere,” she insisted.

He recalled that no region is unscathed and maintained that what has happened so far is nothing compared to what will come. “Today’s hottest summers may be tomorrow’s coolest. Once-in-a-lifetime weather disturbances may soon turn into once-a-year events.”

The Secretary General stated that the climate crisis is a paradigm of moral and economic injustice in which the G20 countries generate 80% of all emissions, but the poorest and most vulnerable – who have contributed the least to the crisis – are bearing its most brutal repercussions.

“We must hold accountable fossil fuel companies and those who promote their interests: banks, private equity funds, asset managers and other financial institutions that continue to invest and guarantee carbon pollution,” he said.

In this regard, he urged all developed economies to tax windfall profits of fossil fuel companies.

On the other hand, he advocated a structural reform of the world financial system, created by rich countries to serve their interests, given that it accentuates and consolidates inequalities.

“Let us seek common solutions to common problems, based on the goodwill, trust and rights shared by all human beings. Let us work as a unit, as a coalition of the world, as the United Nations”, concluded the Secretary General.

The President of the Assembly advocates solidarity, sustainable and scientific solutions

For his part, the president of the UN General Assembly, Csaba Körösi, called for solutions based on solidarity, sustainability and science for the crises that afflict the world.

“Need solidarity because inequalities have reached record heights… sustainability because we owe it to our children to leave behind a habitable world… [y] science because it offers us neutral evidence for our actions”, he detailed.

But solutions must be real and implementedhe stressed, “because we have written many treaties, established excellent goals, but we have taken very little action”.

Körösi listed a series of problems that require urgent solutionincluding climate change, violent conflict, humanitarian emergencies, inflation, stagnant development and human rights abuses in many parts of the world.

UN/Cia Pak

The president of the UN General Assembly, Csaba Körösi, during the high-level debate of that body