UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations’ massive global summit returned on Tuesday with a stark warning from the world body’s chief of an upcoming “winter of global discontent” from rising prices, a warming planet and deadly conflicts.
After two years of pandemic restrictions and video addresses, the UN General Assembly again asked leaders to come in person if they wish to speak, with a sole exception made for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, while saluting efforts for global cooperation, warned of a dire state of the planet. “A winter of global discontent is on the horizon,” Guterres said as he opened the annual General Assembly. “Trust is crumbling, inequalities are exploding, our planet is burning. People are hurting, with the most vulnerable suffering the most.”
With global temperatures rising and a chunk of Pakistan the size of the United Kingdom recently under water, Guterres lashed out at fossil fuel companies and the “suicidal war against nature”. For three times, he pointed to the devastation caused by flash floods in Pakistan following a ‘monster monsoon’. He said it was because of the climate catastrophe. “Let’s tell it like it is, our world is addicted to fossil fuels. It’s time for an intervention. We need to hold fossil fuel companies and their enablers to account,” Guterres said. He called on all developed economies to tax profits from fossil fuels and dedicate funds both to compensate for damage from climate change and to help people struggling with high prices. “Polluters must pay,” Guterres said.
The summit was disrupted after the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Day one features French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the leaders of the two largest economies of the European Union which has mobilised to impose tough sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “This year, Ukraine will be very high on the agenda. It will be unavoidable,” top EU diplomat Josep Borrell told reporters in New York. “There are many other problems, we know. But the war in Ukraine has been sending shockwaves around the world.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock vowed to support countries hardest hit by the fallout from the war as she headed to the General Assembly on Tuesday. “The brutality of Russia’s war of aggression and its threat to the peace order in Europe have not blinded us to the fact that its dramatic effects are also clearly being felt in many other regions of the world,” Baerbock said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was visiting despite a hostile reaction from the United States. With the Ukraine war leading to a global grain crisis, hunger is another major issue on the agenda. More than 200 NGOs called for urgent action from leaders gathered for the General Assembly to “end the spiralling global hunger crisis”.
“Around the world, 50 million people are on the brink of starvation in 45 countries,” they said, adding that as many as 19,700 people were estimated to be dying of hunger every day, which translated to one person every four seconds.