War in Ukraine, climatic catastrophes, food insecurity… The Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, warned the planet’s leaders of the “perfect storm” that hangs over the planet and that will cause a “winter of protests”, in the opening of a deeply divided General Assembly.
“These crises threaten the very future of humanity and the fate of the planet,” he warned.
In a pessimistic speech about the future of the planet, Guterres acknowledged his impotence in the face of “political divisions that undermine the work of the Security Council, international law, people’s trust and faith in democratic institutions.”
“We cannot continue like this,” he warned and urged “coordinated action anchored in respect for international law and the protection of human rights.”
After two years of pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which will “inevitably” be the main issue of the assembly, as the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell said, which has generated a rise in food and energy prices causing the food insecurity of millions of people in the world, will be the focus of a good part of the speeches of nearly 150 leaders that will take place in the UN gallery for a week.
A “winter of discontent”
Guterres of the risk of “a winter of global discontent” due to the “perfect storm” of multiple crises hitting the planet.
“The crisis of purchasing power is unleashed, confidence is crumbling, inequalities are skyrocketing, our planet is on fire, people are suffering, especially the most vulnerable” and, despite this, “we are blocked by a colossal global dysfunction”, Guterres lamented at the opening of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Some 94 countries, with 1.6 billion people – most of them in Africa – are facing “a perfect storm: economic and social fallout from the pandemic, rising food and energy prices, huge debts, spiraling inflation and lack of access to financial markets”.
“These crises threaten the very future of humanity and the fate of the planet,” he warned. “Let’s have no illusions. We are in a rough sea. A winter of discontent looms on the horizon.”
To try to respond to the concerns of some countries, Americans and Europeans are organizing a high-level meeting on Tuesday on food insecurity, a consequence of the war that affects the entire planet.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodímir Zelenski will intervene by video, thanks to the special authorization voted last week by the Member States. A ministerial-level meeting of the Security Council is scheduled for Thursday.
As provided by protocol, the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, will be the one to open the speech session immediately after Guterres. Traditionally, he is followed by his American counterpart, Joe Biden, but exceptionally his intervention has been delayed until Wednesday due to his presence on Monday at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in London.
The leaders of Chile, Gabriel Boric, and Colombia, Gustavo Petro, new to this meeting, are among the first to address the forum, together with the Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the German Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz and the Paraguayan Mario Abdo Benitez.
Tax on profits generated by fossil fuels
The countries of the South are increasingly fed up with Westerners focusing their attention on Ukraine, which averts their eyes from their real problems, such as the consequences of climate change and inflation that has soared and that affects the poorest in particular adding to North-South resentment in the fight over climate change.
To alleviate these asymmetries, Guterres, who has made the fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions a priority, urged rich countries to tax windfall profits generated by fossil fuels to help countries that are victims of the impact of the climate change and populations affected by inflation.
“The fossil fuel industry is feasting on hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies and windfall profits as household budgets shrink and our planet burns,” he said.
And he proposed “redirecting them in two ways: to countries that suffer loss and damage caused by the climate crisis, and to populations in difficulty due to food and energy prices.”
Britain has approved a 25% tax on North Sea oil and gas producers, while US lawmakers have debated a similar idea, though it is unlikely to succeed in Congress.
“The polluters must pay,” Guterres said.
With two months to go until the COP27 climate conference in Egypt, poor countries, at the forefront of the devastating impact of uninflicted global warming, are struggling to get rich countries to keep their promises of financial aid.
He also said multilateral development banks “must step up and deliver” and that helping poor countries adapt to worsening climate impacts “must make up half of all climate finance.”
“The major economies are their shareholders and they must do so,” Guterres added.
Among the issues that will focus the multitude of bilateral meetings, is the dossier on Iran, whose president Ebrahim Raisi is attending the UN diplomatic ball for the first time.
The UN appointment will have important absences, such as the presidents of Russia, Vladimir Putin, the Chinese Xi Xinping. Nor will the Cuban Miguel Díaz-Canel, the Costa Rican Rodrigo Cháves, the Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro, the Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador or the Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega.
With information from AFP and Reuters
