Monday 18 November 2024
The climate crisis is breaking new records and 2024 will likely be the hottest year in human history.
In Brazil, the Amazon is suffering from drought and the southern part of the country is facing terrible floods. There are wars going on all over the world, crimes against humanity are going on unabated, and international law and the UN Charter are being violated. Being trampled on and on.
Inequality is increasing, progress towards eradicating poverty and hunger has stalled and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals has become more difficult.
While new technology brings many benefits to the world, it also brings many concerns.
It has become inevitable to change and improve the institutions that were created to solve the world's problems. Among them is the United Nations Security Council, which reflects the world of 80 years ago.
The need for peace
Antonio Guterres said that in September UN member states approved a future agreement aimed at strengthening the multilateral mechanism and accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
To achieve the goals of this agreement, the G20 countries will have to play a leadership role because they have not only economic capacity but also large-scale diplomatic influence. In this regard, it is important to work for the establishment of peace in these countries because people everywhere are paying a heavy price for wars.
The G20 must begin the irreversible journey towards an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages and a two-state solution to the problem.
They must take meaningful steps to implement the ceasefire in Lebanon and the Security Council resolutions. The G20 must establish peace in Ukraine in accordance with the UN Charter and resolutions. Likewise, to bring peace to Sudan, they will have to pressure the militant factions there to stop violence and use their influence to control the humanitarian crisis.
He said that the establishment of peace everywhere requires actions based on the law, the values of the United Nations Charter and the principles of sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity of countries.
Reforms in the financial system
The Secretary General said that weak countries are facing many major problems that they had no hand in creating. They are not getting help from a global financial system that has become obsolete, inefficient and unfair.
A future agreement calls for ambitious reforms to the system to bring it in line with contemporary economic demands and the needs of developing and poor countries. For this purpose, the representation of developing countries in the international financial institutions has to be increased.
The Secretary General further said that the agreement also talks about increasing the lending capacity of multilateral banks and making them broader and better.
Poor countries need to be provided loans on easy terms and facilitate their repayment. Improving global financial security is also the need of the hour so that all countries can benefit from it in difficult situations.
'Cop 29' and concerns
The UN chief called for a tax on carbon emissions and other environmental pollutants and said he had concerns about the ongoing COP 29 negotiations. The conference will set new ambitious financial targets to help developing countries tackle climate change. In this way, trust between the developed and developing world will increase and effective measures will be possible to overcome this problem facing the world's survival.
In this regard, he urged the G20 countries to act with a sense of responsibility and set an example for the world through their leadership role.
The Secretary General said that due to the current climate policies of the countries, the global temperature is expected to increase by 3.1 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era by the end of this century. To prevent this catastrophe, this increase must be kept within the limit of 1.5 degrees.
In addition, the goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 9 percent by 2030, but the world is still far behind in this regard.
Since 80% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the G20 countries, all eyes are on them. These countries will have to plan for climate action with the 1.5 degree target in mind and in this context will have to curb greenhouse gas emissions from every aspect of their economy.
The recent announcements made by Brazil and the United Kingdom in this regard are a welcome start.
Dissemination of misleading information
The Secretary General said that there is a need for developed countries to help developing countries in terms of providing new technology and financial resources. They must provide more massive financial resources to poor countries to deal with the damage and destruction caused by climate change.
He said that Brazil will host 'Cop 30' next year and he will work together with the country's president Lula on all these issues so that concrete results can be achieved.
António Guterres said it is also important to combat organized disinformation campaigns that are hindering progress in tackling climate change. This includes a number of issues including refusal to acknowledge climate change, apparent rather than real measures to tackle the problem and harassment of climate scientists.
He said that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is launching a global initiative on 'information integrity on climate change' with the support of Brazil. By working together with researchers and partners in this regard, misleading and inaccurate information on climate change can be better countered.
Cooperation in technology
The Secretary-General said that the Global Digital Compact adopted by the United Nations Conference on the Future is the first global agreement on the management of artificial intelligence and on taking the views of each country in this matter.
The agreement also calls for the establishment of an impartial international scientific panel on artificial intelligence and the initiation of a global dialogue on its implementation at the United Nations. In addition, it also requested the provision of financial resources on a voluntary basis for the development of artificial intelligence technology in developing countries next year.
He urged all countries to take advantage of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and help others in this direction.
Comments
Post a Comment