As the “risks of escalation” in Ukraine increase, the world is heading “with eyes wide open” towards “a broader war”, the UN secretary general said on Monday in a particularly somber speech presenting his priorities for 2023.
War in Ukraine, climate crisis, extreme poverty… “We began the year 2023 with our sights set on a convergence of challenges never seen in our lifetime,” declared Antonio Guterres before the UN General Assembly.
According to the scientists managing the doomsday clock, humanity has never been so close to its end, now at 90 seconds before midnight, he recalled, seeing it as an alarm signal.
“We have to wake up and get to work,” he insisted, listing the pressing issues for 2023.
At the very top of this list, the war in Ukraine.
“The prospects for peace keep shrinking. The risks of further escalation and carnage continue to grow. »
“I’m afraid the world is not sleeping like a sleepwalker on towards a wider war, but I’m afraid it’s actually doing it with its eyes wide open,” he said, before worry about other threats to peace, from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Afghanistan via Myanmar, the Sahel or Haiti.
“If all countries fulfilled their obligations under the Charter [des Nations unies]the right to peace would be guaranteed,” he insisted, placing respect for human rights at the heart of these values.
More broadly, Antonio Guterres denounced the lack of “strategic vision”, and the “penchant” of political and economic decision-makers for the short term.
“The next election. The next political maneuver to cling to power” or “stock prices the next day”: “This short-term thinking is not only deeply irresponsible, it is immoral. »
Crumbs for the poor
Emphasizing on the contrary the need to think about future generations, he repeated his call for a “radical transformation” of the global financial architecture.
“There is something fundamentally wrong with our economic and financial system,” he insisted, pointing to his responsibility for the rise in poverty and hunger, the gap between rich and poor, or the weight of poverty. debt of developing countries.
“Without fundamental reforms, the wealthiest countries and individuals will continue to accumulate wealth, leaving only crumbs for communities and countries in the South.”
A concern echoed by representatives of developing countries, from Africa to small island states.
“The poorest cannot continue to pay the high price for the benefit of the wealthiest,” insisted Cuban Ambassador Pedro Luis Pedroso Cuesta, on behalf of the G77 + China group, which includes 134 developing countries.
According to the UN Development Programme, with the pandemic, the world has already gone back five years in terms of human development (health, education, standard of living).
And “the development goals are disappearing in the rearview mirror”, lamented Antonio Guterres, referring to the 17 goals set in 2015 to achieve the eradication of poverty, food security for all and even access to clean and affordable energy.
“We have opportunities to save (them), however assured the Secretary General, who is organizing a summit in New York on this theme in September.
The fight against global warming as well as “climate ambition” will be at the heart of another summit also in September to which he has invited world leaders, “under conditions”.
“Show us accelerating action for this decade and ambitious new plans for carbon neutrality or please don’t come,” he said.
He also once again attacked the fossil fuel sector: “If you can’t plan a credible path to carbon neutrality, with targets for 2025 and 2030 covering all your operations, you should not be in business”. .