As he begins his second term as UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres said on Thursday that the world is worse off in many ways than it was five years ago due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 19, the climate crisis and geopolitical tensions that have sparked conflict everywhere – but unlike US President Joe Biden, he believes Russia will not invade Ukraine.
Guterres said in an interview with The Associated Press that the call for peace he made on his first day at the helm of the UN on January 1, 2017 and his priorities during his first term of trying to prevent conflict and tackle global inequality, the Covid-19 crisis and a warming planet have not changed.
“The UN Secretary General has no power,” said António Guterres. “We can have influence. I can persuade. I can mediate, but I have no power.
Before becoming UN chief, Guterres said he envisioned the position as “a convener, a mediator, a bridge builder and an honest broker to help find solutions that benefit everyone involved.”
He said Thursday that these are things “I have to do every day.”
Guterres is due to deliver a speech to the 193 UN member nations in the General Assembly on Friday on his priorities for 2022.
He identified three immediate priorities that “concern me greatly”: the lack of vaccinations in large parts of the world, especially in Africa; the need to cut emissions by 45% in this decade to try to meet the international goal of trying to limit future global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit); and the “extremely unfair” financial situation in the world that favors rich countries.
Many developing countries have very few resources, high and growing debts and they pay much higher interest rates than in Europe or North America, have no vaccines and “suffer disproportionately from impacts of climate change,” Guterres said.
“We need a profound reform of our international financial system to ensure that there is more justice in the way resources are made available to enable (Covid-19) recovery to be possible everywhere,” did he declare.
On another major topic, António Guterres stressed that the Afghan people cannot be collectively punished for “the bad things that are being done by the Taliban”, so it is absolutely essential to massively increase humanitarian aid “because the Afghans are in dire straits with the risk of death from starvation and disease in a freezing winter with Covid-19.
“More than half of the population is in desperate need of humanitarian aid,” he said, and money needs to be pumped into the economy to keep Afghan banks running and doctors, teachers paid. , engineers and other workers to guarantee human rights, especially the rights of women. girls’ rights to work and education are not affected.
The general secretary said he would attend the Beijing Olympics in February “which is not a political act” but “to be there when everyone comes together for good – for a message of peace”.
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