The UN Secretary-General said in New Delhi on Friday that the “world family” is dysfunctional and warned there is a risk of conflict at a time when divisions between states are increasing.
“If we are indeed a global family, we look like a very dysfunctional family today. Divisions are growing, tensions are exploding and trust is eroding, raising the specter of fragmentation and ultimately confrontation,” António Guterres told journalists. in New Delhi, this weekend’s venue for the summit of the Group of the World’s Twenty Most Industrialized Countries (G20).
According to Guterres, the world as it is now “cannot continue this way”, also warning that the lack of unity between countries in the face of global problems could lead to a “catastrophe”.
“I came to the G20 with a simple but urgent appeal: we cannot continue like this. We must unite and act together for the common good,” Guterres said at a press conference in the Indian capital.
The UN Secretary General explained that the world is in transition and that the future is multipolar, but multilateral institutions “reflect a bygone era”, with an “outdated, dysfunctional and unfair” global financial architecture that, in his opinion opinion, needs ‘a bygone era’. deep structural reforms”.
“The same can be said of the United Nations Security Council,” he added, calling again for the reform of this body, which was born at the end of the Second World War.
Guterres called on G20 leaders to show leadership in two specific areas: combating climate change and upholding the 17 Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations as part of the 2030 Agenda.
The G20 brings together 19 of the world’s largest economies and the European Union, representing 85% of global GDP and two-thirds of the world’s population.
But sharp differences over Russia’s war in Ukraine and how to help emerging economies fight global warming are likely to derail any agreements at the two-day summit in New Delhi.
“This fragmentation would be very worrying at the best of times. But in our times it is a catastrophe,” Guterres stressed.
Regarding the climate crisis, Guterres recalled that G20 countries are responsible for 80% of pollutant emissions worldwide and stressed that “half measures will not prevent climate collapse.”
He therefore called for maintaining the target of keeping the increase in global temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius, for progress in the transition to a green economy and for the implementation of a climate solidarity pact in which the richest countries join emerging countries help reduce their emissions. .
“We must work together, as a family, to save our only Earth and secure our only future,” he concluded.
Source: DN
