United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres has called on Member States to “show the world what we can achieve when we work together,” emphasizing the importance of the upcoming Summit of the Future. The Summit, which he is hosting on September 22-23 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, will bring together world leaders to address global challenges.
At a press conference on September 18, 2024, at the United Nations he noted “The Summit of The Future was born out of a cold, hard fact: international challenges are moving faster than our ability to solve them. We see out-of-control geo-political divisions and runaway conflicts – not least in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and beyond,” while emphasizing that the Summit can play a crucial role in addressing these matters.
Guterres highlighted the urgent issues of runaway climate change, growing inequalities, mounting debt, and the rapid development of technologies such as artificial intelligence, which are advancing without adequate guidance or regulations. He warned that existing institutions lack the resources to effectively manage these emerging threats.
“Crises are interacting and feeding off each other – for example, as digital technologies spread climate disinformation that deepens distrust and fuels polarization,” the Secretary-General added. “Global institutions and frameworks are today totally inadequate to deal with these complex and even existential challenges. And it’s no great surprise. Those institutions were born in a bygone era for a bygone world.”
Many of today’s challenges were not foreseen 80 years ago when multilateral institutions were established, he expressed while noting the values behind these institutions are timeless, they must evolve to stay relevant. The original framework for global problem-solving was never meant to remain static.
The peacebuilders of the 1940s could not have predicted the changes that have swept over humanity over the past eight decades: “The independence movements and breathtaking economic and geopolitical rise of many developing countries; the catastrophic consequences of climate change; Space exploration in all its dimensions; and the internet, smartphones and social media – all boosted by Artificial Intelligence.”
He said, like our founders, there is no way to predict the future, but it’s clear that 21st-century challenges demand more effective, inclusive, and networked solutions. To address power imbalances in global institutions, his recommendation was to involve all of humanity in decision-making. Though change won’t happen immediately, it can begin today.
According to the Secretary-General, in preparation for the Summit of the Future, there are significant potential breakthroughs in several key areas. They include “The strongest language on Security Council reform in a generation – and the most concrete step towards Council enlargement since 1963; The first set of governance measures for new technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, in all their applications — with the UN at its center; A major advance in reform of the International Financial Architecture with the most significant language yet strengthening the role of developing countries; and A step change in financing the Sustainable Development Goals and a commitment to advance our SDG Stimulus, multiplying the resources available to developing countries.”
The speaker urged Member States to push for the adoption of the Pact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact, and the Declaration on Future Generations, emphasizing that the Summit is crucial to making global institutions more legitimate, effective, and ready for the future. Failure is not an option, and Member States must seize this opportunity, he stressed.
