UN chief calls on nations to approve plan to tackle global challenges

The United Nations chief has urged divided nations to compromise and approve a blueprint to address global challenges from conflicts and climate change to artificial intelligence and reforming the UN and global financial institutions.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters on Wednesday that discussions on the Pact Of The Future are in their final stretch and failure to reach the required consensus among all 193 UN member nations “would be tragic.”

A year ago, Mr Guterres sounded an alarm about the survival of humanity and the planet. He summoned world leaders to a Summit Of The Future to unite and take action to reform the UN and other institutions established after World War II and address new global threats.

The global gathering is taking place on Sunday and Monday, just before Tuesday’s start of the annual high-level meeting at the UN General Assembly.

Negotiations on the 30-page pact, now in its fourth revision, have been taking place for months, and in recent interviews and at Wednesday’s press conference the secretary-general has faced questions about its lack of vision, and what is different from UN documents adopted in recent years that have not been implemented.

“It’s very simple,” the UN chief replied.

All the previous “extraordinary, important declarations” were about what is needed to meet the challenges of the 21st century, he said.

The Summit Of The Future is about implementing those challenges, which requires reform of global institutions established after World War II including the United Nations.

Mr Guterres stressed that in every area — from climate to AI — “there is a serious problem of governance”.

The draft Pact Of The Future says world leaders are gathering “at a time of profound global transformation” and it warns of “rising catastrophic and existential risks” that could tip people everywhere “into a future of persistent crisis and breakdown”.

But the draft says leaders are coming to the UN “to protect the needs and interests of present and future generations through actions in the Pact for the Future”.

It includes 51 actions on issues including eradicating poverty, combating climate change, achieving gender equality, promoting peace and protecting civilians, as well as reinvigorating the multilateral system to “seize the opportunities of today and tomorrow”.

Mr Guterres pointed to “potential breakthroughs” in the pact including “the strongest language on Security Council reform in a generation” and the most concrete steps to enlarging the powerful 15-member body since 1963.

He also cited the first measures to govern new technologies including artificial intelligence, a “major advance” in reforming international financial institutions and a commitment to multiply resources for developing countries to meet UN development goals by 2030.

Urging member states to get the Pact of the Future “over the finish line,” Mr Guterres said: “We can’t create a future fit for our grandchildren with systems built for our grandparents.”

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters on Tuesday that a priority for the Biden administration at this year’s Summit of the Future is “to create a more inclusive and effective international system”.

She said the Group of 77, which now represents 134 developing countries at the UN, the 27-member European Union and the United States all agreed to the fourth revision of the Pact Of The Future.

But the US ambassador said Russia objected to about 15 different issues, Saudi Arabia had problems with the climate language and other countries objected to the language on reforming the international financial institutions including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

“I do think the Summit Of The Future will make a difference,” she said. “There are still some major differences. But I am still hopeful that we will get there.”