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General assembly, 21 september 2021, secretary-general’s address to the 76th session of the un general assembly, antónio guterres.

We face a moment of truth. Now is the time to deliver…restore trust… [and] inspire hope. And I do have hope…humanity has shown that we are capable of great things when we work together. That is the raison d’être of our United Nations.

[All-English version; scroll further down for all-French and trilingual as delivered versions]

Mr. President of the General Assembly, Excellencies,

I am here to sound the alarm:  The world must wake up.

We are on the edge of an abyss — and moving in the wrong direction.

Our world has never been more threatened.

Or more divided.

We face the greatest cascade of crises in our lifetimes. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has supersized glaring inequalities. 

The climate crisis is pummeling the planet.

Upheaval from Afghanistan to Ethiopia to Yemen and beyond has thwarted peace.

A surge of mistrust and misinformation is polarizing people and paralyzing societies.

Human rights are under fire. 

Science is under assault.  

And economic lifelines for the most vulnerable are coming too little and too late — if they come at all.

Solidarity is missing in action — just when we need it most. 

Perhaps one image tells the tale of our times. 

The picture we have seen from some parts of the world of COVID-19 vaccines … in the garbage.  

Expired and unused.   

On the one hand, we see the vaccines developed in record time — a victory of science and human ingenuity.

On the other hand, we see that triumph undone by the tragedy of a lack of political will, selfishness and mistrust. 

A surplus in some countries.  Empty shelves in others.

A majority of the wealthier world vaccinated.  Over 90 percent of Africans still waiting for their first dose.

This is a moral indictment of the state of our world.

It is an obscenity. 

We passed the science test. 

But we are getting an F in Ethics.

Excellencies,

The climate alarm bells are also ringing at fever pitch.

The recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was a code red for humanity. 

We see the warning signs in every continent and region.

Scorching temperatures.  Shocking biodiversity loss.  Polluted air, water and natural spaces. 

And climate-related disasters at every turn.

As we saw recently, not even this city — the financial capital of the world — is immune. 

Climate scientists tell us it’s not too late to keep alive the 1.5 degree goal of the Paris Climate Agreement. 

But the window is rapidly closing.

We need a 45 per cent cut in emissions by 2030.  Yet a recent UN report made clear that with present national climate commitments, emissions will go up by 16% by 2030. 

That would condemn us to a hellscape of temperature rises of at least 2.7 degrees above pre-industrial levels.  A catastrophe.

Meanwhile, the OECD just reported a gap of at least $20 billion in essential and promised climate finance to developing countries.

We are weeks away from the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, but seemingly light years away from reaching our targets.

We must get serious.  And we must act fast. 

COVID and the climate crisis have exposed profound fragilities as societies and as a planet. 

Yet instead of humility in the face of these epic challenges, we see hubris. 

Instead of the path of solidarity, we are on a dead end to destruction.

At the same time, another disease is spreading in our world today:  a malady of mistrust.

When people see promises of progress denied by the realities of their harsh daily lives…

When they see their fundamental rights and freedoms curtailed…

When they see petty — as well as grand — corruption around them…

When they see billionaires joyriding to space while millions go hungry on earth…

When parents see a future for their children that looks even bleaker than the struggles of today...

And when young people see no future at all…

The people we serve and represent may lose faith not only in their governments and institutions — but in the values that have animated the work of the United Nations for over 75 years.

Peace.  Human rights.  Dignity for all.  Equality.  Justice.  Solidarity.

Like never before, core values are in the crosshairs. 

A breakdown in trust is leading to a breakdown in values. 

Promises, after all, are worthless if people do not see results in their daily lives. 

Failure to deliver creates space for some of the darkest impulses of humanity.

It provides oxygen for easy fixes, pseudo-solutions and conspiracy theories. 

It is kindling to stoke ancient grievances.  Cultural supremacy.  Ideological dominance.  Violent misogyny.  The targeting of the most vulnerable including refugees and migrants.   

We face a moment of truth.

Now is the time to deliver. 

Now is the time to restore trust. 

Now is the time to inspire hope. 

And I do have hope. 

The problems we have created are problems we can solve.

Humanity has shown that we are capable of great things when we work together. That is the raison d’être of our United Nations. 

But let’s be frank.  Today’s multilateral system is too limited in its instruments and capacities, in relation to what is needed for effective governance of managing global public goods.

It is too fixed on the short-term. 

We need to strengthen global governance.  We need to focus on the future.  We need to renew the social contract.  We need to ensure a United Nations fit for a new era. 

That is why I presented my report on Our Common Agenda in the way I did.

It provides a 360 degree analysis of the state of our world, with 90 specific recommendations that take on the challenges of today and strengthen multilateralism for tomorrow. 

Our Common Agenda builds on the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the Paris Climate Agreement.

It is in line with the mandate I was given by the UN75 Declaration to seek a pathway to a better world.  

But to reach that land of our promises, we must bridge Great Divides. 

I see 6 Great Divides — 6 Grand Canyons — that we must bridge now.   

First, we must bridge the peace divide.  

For far too many around the world, peace and stability remain a distant dream. 

In Afghanistan, where we must boost humanitarian assistance and defend human rights, especially of women and girls.

In Ethiopia, where we call on parties to immediately cease hostilities, ensure humanitarian access and create the conditions for the start of an Ethiopian-led political dialogue.

In Myanmar, where we reaffirm unwavering support to the people in their pursuit of democracy, peace, human rights and the rule of law.

In the Sahel, where we are committed to mobilizing international assistance for regional security, development and governance.

In places such as Yemen, Libya and Syria, where we must overcome stalemates and push for peace.   In Israel and Palestine, where we urge leaders to resume a meaningful dialogue,  recognizing the two-State solution as the only pathway to a just and comprehensive peace.

In Haiti and so many other places left behind, where we stand in solidarity through every step out of crisis. 

We are seeing an explosion in seizures of power by force. 

Military coups are back. 

The lack of unity among the international community does not help.

Geopolitical divisions are undermining international cooperation and limiting the capacity of the Security Council to take the necessary decisions.

A sense of impunity is taking hold. 

At the same time, it will be impossible to address dramatic economic and development challenges while the world’s two largest economies are at odds with each other. 

Yet I fear our world is creeping towards two different sets of economic, trade, financial, and technology rules, two divergent approaches in the development of artificial intelligence — and ultimately the risk of two different military and geo-political strategies.

This is a recipe for trouble.  It would be far less predictable than the Cold War. 

To restore trust and inspire hope, we need cooperation.  We need dialogue.  We need understanding. 

We need to invest in prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding.  We need progress on nuclear disarmament and in our shared efforts to counter terrorism.

We need actions anchored in respect for human rights.  And we need a new comprehensive Agenda for Peace.

Second, we must bridge the climate divide.  This requires bridging trust between North and South.

It starts by doing all we can now to create the conditions for success in Glasgow. 

We need more ambition from all countries in three key areas — mitigation, finance and adaptation.

More ambition on mitigation — means countries committing to carbon neutrality by mid-century —  and to concrete 2030 emissions reductions targets that will get us there, backed up with credible actions now.

More ambition on finance — means developing nations finally seeing the promised $100 billion dollars a year for climate action, fully mobilizing the resources of both international financial institutions and the private sector, too.

More ambition on adaptation — means developed countries living up to their promise of credible support to developing countries to build resilience to save lives and livelihoods.

This means 50 per cent of all climate finance provided by developed countries and multilateral development banks should be dedicated to adaptation.

The African Development Bank set the bar in 2019 by allocating half of its climate finance to adaptation.

Some donor countries have followed their lead.  All must do so.

My message to every Member State is this:  Don’t wait for others to make the first move.  Do your part.

Around the world, we see civil society — led by young people — fully mobilized to tackle the climate crisis.

The private sector is increasingly stepping up. 

Governments must also summon the full force of their fiscal policymaking powers to make the shift to green economies. 

By taxing carbon and pollution instead of people’s income to more easily make the switch to sustainable green jobs.

By ending subsidies to fossil fuels and freeing up resources to invest back into health care, education, renewable energy, sustainable food systems, and social protections for their people.

By committing to no new coal plants.  If all planned coal power plants become operational, we will not only be clearly above 1.5 degrees — we will be well above 2 degrees.   The Paris targets will go up in smoke.

This is a planetary emergency. 

We need coalitions of solidarity -- between countries that still depend heavily on coal, and countries that have the financial and technical resources to support their transition.   We have the opportunity and the obligation to act. 

Third, we must bridge the gap between rich and poor, within and among countries.

That starts by ending the pandemic for everyone, everywhere. 

We urgently need a global vaccination plan to at least double vaccine production and ensure that vaccines reach seventy percent of the world’s population in the first half of 2022.

This plan could be implemented by an emergency Task Force made up of present and potential vaccine producers, the World Health Organization, ACT-Accelerator partners, and international financial institutions, working with pharmaceutical companies.

We have no time to lose.

A lopsided recovery is deepening inequalities. 

Richer countries could reach pre-pandemic growth rates by the end of this year while the impacts may last for years in low-income countries.

Is it any wonder?

Advanced economies are investing nearly 28 per cent of their Gross Domestic Product into economic recovery.

For middle-income countries, that number falls to 6.5 per cent.

And it plummets to 1.8 per cent for the least developed countries — a tiny percentage of a much smaller amount.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the International Monetary Fund projects that cumulative economic growth per capita over the next five years will be 75 percent less than the rest of the world.

Many countries need an urgent injection of liquidity.    I welcome the issuance of $650 billion in Special Drawing Rights by the International Monetary Fund.

But these SDRs are largely going to the countries that need them least. 

Advanced economies should reallocate their surplus SDRs to countries in need. 

SDRs are not a silver bullet. 

But they provide space for sustainable recovery and growth.

I renew also my call for a reformed and more equitable international debt architecture. 

The Debt Service Suspension Initiative must be extended to 2022 and should be available to all highly indebted vulnerable and middle-income countries that request it. 

This would be solidarity in action.

Countries shouldn’t have to choose between servicing debt and serving people.

With effective international solidarity, it would be possible at the national level to forge a new social contract that includes universal health coverage and income protection, housing and decent work, quality education for all, and an end to discrimination and violence against women and girls. 

I call on countries to reform their tax systems and finally end tax evasion, money laundering and illicit financial flows.

And as we look ahead, we need a better system of prevention and preparedness for all major global risks.  We must support the recommendations of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. 

I have put forward a number of other proposals in Our Common Agenda — including an emergency platform and a Futures Lab.

Fourth, we must bridge the gender divide. 

COVID-19 exposed and amplified the world’s most enduring injustice: the power imbalance between men and women.

When the pandemic hit, women were the majority of frontline workers, first to lose their jobs, and first to put their careers on hold to care for those close to them.

Girls were disproportionately hit by school closures that limit their development and increase the risk of abuse, violence and child marriage. 

Bridging the gender divide is not only a matter of justice for women and girls.

It’s a game-changer for humanity.

Societies with more equal representation are more stable and peaceful. They have better health systems and more vibrant economies.

Women’s equality is essentially a question of power. We must urgently transform our male-dominated world and shift the balance of power, to solve the most challenging problems of our age.

That means more women leaders in parliaments, cabinets and board rooms. It means women fully represented and making their full contribution, everywhere. 

I urge governments, corporations and other institutions to take bold steps, including benchmarks and quotas, to create gender parity from the leadership down.

At the United Nations, we have achieved this among the Senior Management and our country team leaders. We will keep going until we have parity at every level.

At the same time, we need to push back against regressive laws that institutionalize gender discrimination. Women’s rights are human rights.    

Economic recovery plans should focus on women, including through large-scale investments in the care economy.

And we need an emergency plan to fight gender-based violence in every country.

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and build a better world, we can and we must bridge the gender divide. 

Fifth, restoring trust and inspiring hope means bridging the digital divide.

Half of humanity has no access to the internet.  We must connect everyone by 2030.    This is the vision of my Roadmap for Digital Co-operation — to embrace the promise of digital technology while protecting people from its perils. 

One of the greatest perils we face is the growing reach of digital platforms and the use and abuse of data.

A vast library of information is being assembled about each of us. Yet we don’t even have the keys to that library.

We don’t know how this information has been collected, by whom or for what purposes.

But we do know our data is being used commercially — to boost corporate profits.

Our behavior patterns are being commodified and sold like futures contracts.

Our data is also being used to influence our perceptions and opinions.

Governments and others can exploit it to control or manipulate people’s behaviour, violating human rights of individuals or groups, and undermining democracy.

This is not science fiction.  This is today’s reality. 

And it requires a serious discussion.

So, too, do other dangers in the digital frontier. 

I am certain, for example, that any future major confrontation — and heaven forbid it should ever happen — will start with a massive cyberattack.

Where are the legal frameworks to address this?

Autonomous weapons can today choose targets and kill people without human interference.  They should be banned. 

But there is no consensus on how to regulate those technologies.  

To restore trust and inspire hope, we need to place human rights at the centre of our efforts to ensure a safe, equitable and open digital future for all.

Sixth, and finally, we need to bridge the divide among generations.    Young people will inherit the consequences of our decisions — good and bad.    At the same time, we expect 10.9 billion people to be born by century’s end.    We need their talents, ideas and energies.     Our Common Agenda proposes a Transforming Education Summit next year to address the learning crisis and expand opportunities for today’s 1.8 billion young people.   But young people need more than support.    They need a seat at the table.    For this, I will appoint a Special Envoy for Future Generations and create the United Nations Youth Office.    And the contributions of young people will be central to the Summit of the Future, as set out in Our Common Agenda.

Young people need a vision of hope for the future. 

Recent research showed the majority of young people across ten countries are suffering from high levels of anxiety and distress over the state of our planet.

Some 60 percent of your future voters feel betrayed by their governments. We must prove to children and young people that despite the seriousness of the situation, the world has a plan — and governments are committed to implementing it.

We need to act now to bridge the Great Divides and save humanity and the planet.

With real engagement, we can live up to the promise of a better, more peaceful world.

That is the driving force of our Common Agenda.    The best way to advance the interests of one’s own citizens is by advancing the interests of our common future. 

Interdependence is the logic of the 21st century.

And it is the lodestar of the United Nations. 

This is our time. 

A moment for transformation. 

An era to re-ignite multilateralism.

An age of possibilities. 

Let us restore trust.  Let us inspire hope. 

And let us start right now. 

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[All-French version]

Monsieur le Président, Excellences, Mesdames et Messieurs les représentants,

Je suis ici pour tirer la sonnette d’alarme : le monde doit se réveiller.

Nous sommes au bord du précipice – et nous continuons de nous en approcher.

Jamais notre monde n’a été aussi menacé.

Ou plus divisé.

Nous faisons face à la plus grande avalanche de crises de notre existence.

La pandémie de COVID-19 a amplifié des inégalités déjà flagrantes.

La crise climatique s’abat sur la planète.

De l’Afghanistan à l’Éthiopie en passant par le Yémen et ailleurs, les bouleversements font échec à la paix.

Un embrasement de méfiance et de désinformation polarise les gens et paralyse les sociétés.

Les droits humains sont mis à mal.

La science est vilipendée.

Et l’aide économique destinée aux plus vulnérables, à supposer qu’elle leur parvienne, est insuffisante et arrive trop tard.

La solidarité est portée disparue – au moment même où nous en avons le plus besoin.

Une image résume peut-être ce que nous vivons.

Celle qui nous vient de certains coins du monde, où l’on voit des vaccins contre le COVID-19 ... jetés à la poubelle.

Périmés et inutilisés.

D’un côté, les vaccins sont mis au point en un temps record – une victoire de la science et de l’ingéniosité humaine.

De l’autre, ce triomphe est réduit à néant par le manque tragique de volonté politique, l’égoïsme et la méfiance.

L’abondance pour certains pays. Des étagères vides pour d’autres.

La plupart des habitants des pays riches sont vaccinés. Plus de 90 % des Africains attendent toujours leur première dose.

Nous sommes moralement coupables de l’état du monde dans lequel nous vivons.

La situation est indécente.

Nous avons réussi l’épreuve de sciences.

Mais nous avons un zéro pointé en éthique.

Mesdames et Messieurs les représentants,

La sonnette d’alarme climatique est également assourdissante.

Le récent rapport du Groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat est un code rouge pour l’humanité.

Nous voyons les signes d’avertissement sur chaque continent et dans chaque région.

Températures caniculaires. Perte de biodiversité épouvantable. Pollution de l’air, de l’eau et des espaces naturels.

Et à chaque instant des catastrophes liées au climat.

Comme nous l’avons vu récemment, même la ville où nous sommes – la capitale financière du monde – n’est pas à l’abri.

Les climatologues nous disent qu’il n’est pas trop tard pour respecter l’objectif de 1,5 degré fixé dans l’Accord de Paris sur le climat.

Mais la fenêtre pour le faire se ferme rapidement.

Nous devons réduire nos émissions de 45 % d’ici à 2030. Pourtant, un récent rapport de l’ONU a clairement montré que, compte tenu des engagements nationaux en matière de climat, d’ici à 2030, les émissions augmenteront de 16 %.

Cela nous condamnerait à une situation infernale où la température augmenterait d’au moins 2,7 degrés par rapport aux niveaux préindustriels. Une catastrophe.

Dans le même temps, l’OCDE vient de signaler un déficit d’au moins 20 milliards de dollars dans le financement essentiel de l’action climatique promis aux pays en développement.

Nous sommes à quelques semaines de la Conférence des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques qui se tiendra à Glasgow, mais nous sommes à des années-lumière de nos objectifs.

Nous devons nous y mettre sérieusement. Et vite.

Le COVID-19 et la crise climatique ont mis en évidence de profondes fragilités, dans nos sociétés et pour notre planète.

Pourtant, ces défis formidables ne suscitent pas l’humilité, mais l’arrogance.

Au lieu de suivre la voie de la solidarité, nous sommes dans une impasse qui mène à la destruction.

Dans le même temps, une autre maladie se propage aujourd’hui dans le monde : le fléau de la méfiance.

Quand les gens voient les promesses de progrès anéanties par les réalités d’un quotidien éprouvant...

Quand ils voient leurs droits fondamentaux et leurs libertés restreints...

Quand ils voient autour d’eux la petite – et la grande – corruption...

Quand ils voient des milliardaires se balader dans l’espace alors que des millions de personnes sur terre ont faim...

Quand les parents voient pour leurs enfants des lendemains plus sombres encore que l’adversité à laquelle ils sont confrontés aujourd’hui...

Et quand les jeunes ne voient aucun lendemain...

Les personnes pour lesquelles nous œuvrons et que nous représentons pourraient perdre la foi non seulement dans leurs gouvernements et leurs institutions, mais aussi dans les valeurs qui animent le travail de l’ONU depuis plus de 75 ans.

Paix. Droits humains. Dignité de toutes et tous. Égalité. Justice. Solidarité.

Jamais auparavant les valeurs fondamentales n’ont été aussi menacées.

Une rupture de la confiance entraîne une rupture des valeurs.

À quoi bon des promesses si les gens ne voient pas de résultats dans leur vie quotidienne.

Quand le résultat n’est pas au rendez-vous, place est faite à certaines des pulsions les plus sinistres de l’humanité.

Cela alimente les solutions faciles, les pseudo-solutions et les théories du complot.

Cela attise les griefs anciens. La suprématie culturelle. La domination idéologique. La misogynie violente. La mise en joue des personnes les plus vulnérables, notamment les réfugiés et les migrants.

L’heure de vérité a sonné.

Le moment est venu d’agir.

Le moment est venu de redonner confiance.

Le moment est venu de raviver l’espoir.

Et de l’espoir, j’en ai !

Les problèmes que nous avons créés sont des problèmes que nous pouvons résoudre.

L’humanité a montré que rien ne l’arrêtait quand tout le monde travaillait main dans la main.

C’est la raison d’être des Nations Unies.

Mais soyons francs. Le système multilatéral actuel a ses limites : ses instruments et ses capacités ne suffisent pas pour assurer l’efficacité de la gouvernance des biens publics mondiaux.

Ce système est trop axé sur le court terme.

Nous devons renforcer la gouvernance mondiale. Nous devons nous concentrer sur l’avenir. Nous devons renouveler le contrat social. Nous devons adapter l’ONU à une nouvelle ère.

C’est pourquoi j’ai présenté comme je l’ai fait mon rapport sur Notre Programme commun.

Ce programme offre une analyse à 360 degrés de l’état de notre monde, accompagnée de 90 recommandations concrètes visant à relever les défis d’aujourd’hui et à renforcer le multilatéralisme de demain.

Notre Programme commun s’appuie sur la Charte des Nations Unies, la Déclaration universelle des droits de l’homme, le Programme de développement durable à l’horizon 2030 et l’Accord de Paris sur le climat.

Il s’inscrit dans le droit fil du mandat qui m’a été confié dans la Déclaration faite à l’occasion de la célébration du soixante-quinzième anniversaire de l’ONU : chercher une voie vers un monde meilleur.

Mais pour atteindre cette terre de promesses, nous devons combler de grands fossés.

Excellences, Mesdames et Messieurs les représentants,

Pour moi, il y a 6 grands fossés – 6 Grands canyons – que nous devons combler maintenant.

Premièrement, nous devons combler le fossé qui nous sépare de la paix.

Pour bien trop de personnes, partout dans le monde, la paix et la stabilité restent un rêve lointain.

En Afghanistan, où nous devons redonner de l’élan à l’aide humanitaire et défendre les droits humains, en particulier ceux des femmes et des filles.

En Éthiopie, où nous demandons à toutes les parties de cesser immédiatement les hostilités, de garantir l’accès humanitaire et de créer les conditions nécessaires à l’ouverture d’un dialogue politique conduit par les Éthiopiennes et les Éthiopiens.

Au Myanmar, où nous réaffirmons notre soutien indéfectible au peuple, qui aspire à la démocratie, à la paix, aux droits humains et à l’état de droit.

Au Sahel, où nous nous sommes engagés à mobiliser l’aide internationale en faveur de la sécurité, du développement et de la gouvernance de la région.

Ailleurs encore, comme au Yémen, en Libye et en Syrie, où nous devons sortir de l’impasse et tout faire pour que la paix soit instaurée.   En Israël et en Palestine, où nous exhortons les dirigeants à reprendre un dialogue constructif et à reconnaître que la solution des deux États est la seule voie pouvant conduire à une paix juste et globale.

En Haïti et dans tant d’autres pays laissés pour compte, où nous sommes solidaires à chaque mesure prise pour sortir de la crise.

Nous assistons à une flambée des prises de pouvoir par la force.

Les coups d’État militaires reprennent.

Et la désunion de la communauté internationale n’aide pas.

Les clivages géopolitiques sapent la coopération internationale et empêchent le Conseil de sécurité de prendre les décisions qui s’imposent.

Un sentiment d’impunité s’installe.

Et pourtant, il sera impossible de relever les prodigieux défis de l’économie et du développement tant que les deux plus grandes économies du monde seront en désaccord l’une avec l’autre.

Hélas, je crains fort que notre monde ne s’achemine vers deux ensembles de règles économiques, commerciales, financières et technologiques bien distincts, deux conceptions opposées du développement de l’intelligence artificielle – et finalement deux stratégies militaires et géopolitiques différentes.

Ce serait la garantie de problèmes à venir. Bien moins prévisibles que la guerre froide.

Pour redonner confiance et raviver l’espoir, nous avons besoin de coopération. Nous avons besoin de dialogue. Nous devons nous entendre.

Nous devons investir dans la prévention des conflits et le maintien et la consolidation de la paix. Nous devons faire avancer le désarmement nucléaire et l’action que nous menons ensemble contre le terrorisme.

Nous devons agir dans le profond respect des droits humains. Et nous devons nous munir d’un nouvel Agenda pour la paix.

Deuxièmement, nous devons combler le fossé climatique. Pour ce faire, il faut rétablir la confiance entre Nord et Sud.

Et cela commence en faisant tout ce que nous pouvons dès maintenant pour assurer le succès de la Conférence de Glasgow.

Il faut que tous les pays se montrent plus ambitieux dans trois grands domaines d’action : l’atténuation, le financement et l’adaptation.

Plus d’ambition en matière d’atténuation, cela veut dire que les pays s’engagent à atteindre la neutralité carbone d’ici le milieu du siècle et à se fixer des objectifs concrets de réduction des émissions pour 2030 qui nous permettent d’y parvenir, et qui s’appuient sur des mesures réalisables dans l’immédiat.

Plus d’ambition en matière de financement – cela veut dire que les pays en développement reçoivent les 100 milliards de dollars par an qui leur ont été promis pour l’action climatique, en mobilisant pleinement les ressources des institutions financières internationales et aussi celles du secteur privé.

Plus d’ambition en matière d’adaptation – cela veut dire que les pays développés tiennent la promesse qu’ils ont faite d’apporter un soutien crédible aux pays en développement afin de renforcer la résilience et de sauver des vies et des moyens de subsistance.

Cela veut dire que 50 % de tous les financements climatiques fournis par les pays développés et les banques multilatérales de développement devraient être consacrés à l’adaptation.

La Banque africaine de développement a montré la voie en 2019 en allouant la moitié de ses financements climatiques à l’adaptation.

Certains pays donateurs ont suivi son exemple. Il faut que tous en fassent autant.

Le message que j’adresse à chaque État Membre est le suivant : n’attendez pas que d’autres fassent le premier pas. Faites votre part.

Partout dans le monde, nous constatons que la société civile – menée par les jeunes – est pleinement mobilisée pour faire face à la crise climatique.

Le secteur privé s’engage de plus en plus.

Il faut que les gouvernements aussi mobilisent tous leurs pouvoirs en matière de politique financière pour faire la transition vers l’économie verte.

En imposant les émissions de carbone et la pollution plutôt que le revenu des ménages, afin de faciliter le passage à des emplois verts durables.

En arrêtant de subventionner les combustibles fossiles et en dégageant des ressources à réinvestir dans la santé, l’éducation, les énergies renouvelables, les systèmes alimentaires durables et la protection sociale.

En s’engageant à ne pas construire de nouvelles centrales à charbon. Si toutes celles qu’il est prévu d’ouvrir entrent en service, non seulement nous dépasserons nettement 1,5 degré, mais nous serons bien au-dessus de 2 degrés.

Les objectifs de Paris partiront en fumée.

Nous sommes face à une urgence planétaire.

Nous avons besoin de coalitions de solidarité – entre les pays qui sont encore fortement tributaires du charbon et ceux qui ont les moyens financiers et techniques de financer leur transition.

Nous pouvons et nous devons agir.

Troisièmement, nous devons combler le fossé entre riches et pauvres, dans les pays et d’un pays à l’autre.

Cela commence par mettre fin à la pandémie, partout et pour tout le monde.

Nous avons besoin de toute urgence d’un plan de vaccination mondial permettant de faire au moins doubler la production et d’acheminer des vaccins à 70 % de la population au premier semestre 2022.

Ce plan pourrait être exécuté par une équipe spéciale d’urgence composée de producteurs actuels et potentiels de vaccins, de l’Organisation mondiale de la Santé, de partenaires du dispositif Accélérateur ACT et des institutions financières internationales, en collaboration avec les sociétés pharmaceutiques.

Nous n’avons pas de temps à perdre.

Une reprise asymétrique creuse les inégalités.

Les pays riches pourraient retrouver les taux de croissance d’avant la pandémie d’ici la fin de l’année, tandis que les retombées de la crise sanitaire pourraient se faire sentir pendant des années dans les pays à faible revenu.

Est-ce bien étonnant ?

Les économies avancées investissent près de 28 % de leur produit intérieur brut dans la reprise économique.

Pour les pays à revenu intermédiaire, ce chiffre tombe à 6,5 %.

Et il chute à 1,8 % pour les pays les moins avancés – un pourcentage infime d’un montant très inférieur.

En Afrique subsaharienne, le Fonds monétaire international prévoit que la croissance économique cumulée par habitant pour les cinq prochaines années devrait être égale au quart de ce qu’elle est dans le reste du monde.

De nombreux pays ont besoin d’injections d’urgence de liquidités.   Je me réjouis que le Fonds monétaire international ait émis 650 milliards de dollars de Droits de tirage spéciaux.

Mais ces droits vont en grande partie aux pays qui en ont le moins besoin.

Les économies avancées devraient réaffecter l’excédent de leurs DTS aux pays qui en ont vraiment besoin.

Les DTS ne sont pas la panacée.

Mais ils permettent une reprise et une croissance durables.

Je renouvelle aussi mon appel en faveur d’une réforme de l’architecture de la dette internationale, qui doit être plus équitable.

L’Initiative de suspension du service de la dette doit être prolongée jusqu’en 2022 et devrait être accessible à tous les pays vulnérables et à tous les pays à revenu intermédiaire très endettés qui le demandent.

C’est ça, la solidarité en action.

Les États ne devraient pas avoir à choisir entre assurer le service de la dette et être au service de la population.

Une véritable solidarité internationale permettrait d’établir à l’échelle nationale un nouveau contrat social prévoyant une couverture sanitaire universelle et la protection du revenu, d’offrir à toutes et à tous un logement, un travail décent et une éducation de qualité pour toutes et tous et d’éliminer la discrimination et la violence contre les femmes et les filles.

J’engage les pays à procéder à des réformes fiscales et à mettre enfin un terme à la fraude fiscale, au blanchiment d’argent et aux flux financiers illicites.

Et pour l’avenir, face aux grands risques mondiaux, nous devons nous doter d’un meilleur système de prévention et de préparation ; nous devons suivre les recommandations du Groupe indépendant sur la préparation et la riposte à la pandémie.

J’ai fait de nombreuses autres propositions dans Notre Programme commun, parmi lesquelles une plateforme d’urgence et un laboratoire pour l’avenir.

Quatrièmement, nous devons combler le fossé entre les genres.

Le COVID-19 a mis à nu et exacerbé la plus vieille injustice du monde : le déséquilibre de pouvoir entre les hommes et les femmes.

Lorsque la pandémie a frappé, les femmes représentaient la majorité des travailleurs de première ligne. Elles ont été les premières à perdre leur emploi et les premières à mettre leurs carrières en suspens pour s’occuper de leurs proches.

Les fermetures d’écoles ont touché les filles de manière disproportionnée, freinant leurs parcours et augmentant les risques d'abus, de violence et de mariage d’enfants.

Combler le fossé entre les femmes et les hommes n’est pas seulement une question de justice pour les femmes et les filles.

Cela change la donne pour l’humanité tout entière.

Les sociétés plus égalitaires sont aussi plus stables et plus pacifiques. Elles ont de meilleurs systèmes de santé et des économies plus dynamiques.

L'égalité des femmes est essentiellement une question de pouvoir. Si nous voulons résoudre les problèmes les plus difficiles de notre époque, nous devons de toute urgence transformer notre monde dominé par les hommes et changer l'équilibre du pouvoir.

Cela requiert plus de femmes dirigeantes dans les parlements, les cabinets ministériels et les conseils d’administration. Cela exige que les femmes soient pleinement représentées et puissent apporter leur pleine contribution partout.  

J’exhorte les gouvernements, les entreprises et les autres organisations à prendre des mesures audacieuses, y compris des critères de référence et des quotas, pour établir la parité hommes-femmes à tous les niveaux de la hiérarchie.

A l’Organisation des Nations Unies, nous avons atteint cela au sein de l’équipe dirigeante et parmi les responsables de bureaux de pays. Nous continuerons jusqu’à ce que nous parvenions à la parité à tous les niveaux.

Dans le même temps, nous devons nous opposer aux lois régressives qui institutionnalisent la discrimination de genre. Les droits des femmes sont des droits humains.

Les plans de relance économique devraient accorder une place centrale aux femmes, notamment par des investissements à grande échelle dans l’économie des soins.

Et nous devons adopter un plan d’urgence pour lutter contre la violence de genre dans chaque pays.

Pour atteindre les Objectifs de développement durable et bâtir un monde meilleur, nous pouvons et nous devons combler le fossé entre les femmes et les hommes.

Mesdames et Messieurs les représentants,   Cinquièmement, pour redonner confiance et raviver l’espoir, nous devons réduire la fracture numérique.

La moitié de l’humanité n’a pas accès à l’Internet. Nous devons faire en sorte que tout le monde soit connecté d’ici à 2030.   Telle est la vision de mon Plan d’action de coopération numérique : saisir les promesses du numérique tout en se prémunissant contre ses dangers.

L’un des plus grands périls auxquels nous sommes confrontés, c’est le pouvoir croissant des plateformes numériques et l’utilisation des données à des fins néfastes.

Une vaste bibliothèque d’informations est en train d’être constituée sur chacun d’entre nous. Et nous n’y avons même pas accès.

Nous ne savons pas comment ces informations ont été recueillies, par qui, ni dans quels buts.

Mais nous savons que nos données sont utilisées à des fins commerciales, pour augmenter encore les profits.

Nos comportements et habitudes deviennent des produits qui sont vendus comme des contrats à terme.

Nos données sont également utilisées pour influencer nos perceptions et nos opinions.

Les gouvernements – et d’autres entités – peuvent les exploiter pour contrôler ou manipuler le comportement des citoyens, bafouant ainsi les droits humains des individus ou groupes et sapant la démocratie.

Ce n’est pas de la science-fiction. C’est notre réalité d’aujourd’hui.

Et cela exige un débat sérieux.

Il en va de même pour d’autres dangers de l’ère numérique. 

Je suis par exemple certain que toute future confrontation majeure – et j’espère évidemment qu’une telle confrontation n’aura jamais lieu – commencera par une cyberattaque massive.

Quels cadres juridiques nous permettraient de faire face à une telle situation ?

Aujourd’hui, des armes autonomes peuvent prendre pour cible des personnes et les tuer sans intervention humaine. De telles armes devraient être interdites.

Mais il n’y a pas de consensus sur la manière de réglementer ces technologies.

Afin de rétablir la confiance et raviver l’espoir, nous devons placer les droits humains au cœur de nos efforts pour que l’avenir numérique de tous soit sûr, équitable et ouvert.

Sixièmement, enfin, nous devons combler le fossé entre les générations.

Les jeunes devront vivre avec les conséquences de nos décisions – bonnes et mauvaises.

Dans le même temps, à la fin du siècle, il devrait y avoir 10,9 milliards de personnes sur la planète.

Nous avons besoin de leurs talents, de leurs idées et de leur énergie.

Notre Programme commun propose qu’un sommet sur la Transformation de l’éducation soit organisé l’an prochain pour faire face à la crise de l’enseignement et offrir davantage de possibilités aux 1,8 milliard de personnes que compte la jeunesse d’aujourd’hui.

Mais les jeunes ont besoin de plus.

Ils doivent être assis à la table de négociations.

Je compte nommer un Envoyé spécial pour les générations futures et créer un bureau des Nations Unies pour la jeunesse.

Et les contributions des jeunes seront essentielles pour le Sommet sur le futur proposé dans Notre Programme commun.

Les jeunes ont besoin d’un projet porteur d’espoir pour l’avenir.

Des études récentes menées dans une dizaine de pays ont montré que l’état de notre planète plongeait la plupart des jeunes dans une angoisse et une détresse profondes.

Environ 60 % de votre futur électorat se sent trahi par son gouvernement.

Nous devons prouver aux enfants et aux jeunes que, malgré la gravité de la situation, le monde a un plan – et que les gouvernements s’engagent à le concrétiser.

Nous devons agir maintenant combler ces grands fossés et sauver l’humanité et la planète.

Si la mobilisation est réelle, nous pourrons tenir notre promesse d’un monde meilleur, plus pacifique.

C’est la force motrice de Notre Programme commun.

Le meilleur moyen pour un gouvernement de défendre les intérêts de ses propres citoyens, c’est de défendre notre avenir commun.

L’interdépendance est la logique du XXIe siècle.

C’est l’idée qui guide l’Organisation des Nations Unies.

L’heure est venue d’agir.

C’est une ère de transformation qui s’ouvre.

L’ère du renouveau du multilatéralisme.

Une ère de possibilités.

Ensemble, nous devons redonner confiance. Nous devons raviver l’espoir.

Sans plus attendre.

Je vous remercie.

**************************************************************************************************************

[Trilingual, as delivered version] 

A surge of mistrust and misinformation is polarizing people and paralyzing societies, and human rights are under fire. 

Climate scientists tell us it is not too late to keep alive the 1.5 degree goal of the Paris Climate Agreement. 

We need a 45 per cent cut in emissions by 2030.  Yet a recent UN report made clear that with present national climate commitments,  emissions will go up by 16% by 2030. 

That would condemn us to a hellscape of temperature rises of at least 2.7 degrees above pre-industrial levels – a catastrophe.

COVID-19 and the climate crisis have exposed profound fragilities as societies and as a planet. 

It provides oxygen for easy-fixes, pseudo-solutions and conspiracy theories. 

It is kindling to stoke ancient grievances.  Cultural  supremacy.  Ideological dominance.  Violent misogyny.  The targeting of the most vulnerable including refugees and migrants.   

Humanity has shown that we are capable of great things when we work together.

That is the raison d’être of our United Nations. 

And the lack of unity among the international community does not help.

Yet I fear our world is creeping towards two different sets of economic, trade, financial, and technology rules, two divergent approaches in the development of artificial intelligence — and ultimately the risk of two different military and geo-political strategies, and this is a recipe for trouble.  It would be far less predictable than the Cold War. 

More ambition on finance — means developing nations finally seeing the promised US$100 billion dollars a year for climate action, fully mobilizing the resources of both international financial institutions and the private sector too.

Many countries need an urgent injection of liquidity.    I welcome the issuance of US $650 billion in Special Drawing Rights by the International Monetary Fund.

I renew also my call for a reformed, and more equitable international debt architecture. 

And as we look ahead, we need a better system of prevention and preparedness for all major global risks. We must support the recommendations of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. 

Excelencias,

En sexto lugar, y por último, tenemos que salvar la brecha entre generaciones.    Los jóvenes heredarán las consecuencias de nuestras decisiones, buenas y malas.

Al mismo tiempo, se espera que nazcan 10.900 millones de personas antes de que termine el siglo.

Necesitamos sus talentos, ideas y energías.

Nuestra Agenda Común propone la celebración, el año que viene, de una Cumbre para la Transformación de la Educación con el fin de abordar la crisis del aprendizaje y ampliar las oportunidades al alcance de los 1.800 millones de jóvenes de hoy.

Los jóvenes necesitan algo más que apoyo.

Necesitan tener un asiento en la mesa.

Por ello, nombraré un Enviado Especial para las Generaciones Futuras y crearé la Oficina de la Juventud de las Naciones Unidas.

Y las contribuciones de los jóvenes serán fundamentales en la Cumbre del Futuro, tal y como queda recogido en Nuestra Agenda Común.

La juventud necesita una visión de esperanza para el futuro. 

Una investigación realizada recientemente en diez países ha demostrado que la mayoría de los jóvenes sufre altos niveles de ansiedad y angustia por el estado de nuestro planeta.

Un 60% de sus futuros votantes se sienten traicionados por sus gobiernos.

Debemos demostrar a los niños y niñas, a los y las jóvenes, que, a pesar de la gravedad de la situación, el mundo tiene un plan – y que los gobiernos están comprometidos con su aplicación.

Tenemos que actuar ahora para superar las Grandes Divisiones y salvar a la humanidad y al planeta.   Excellencies,

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U.N. General Assembly Biden Pledges to Work Toward ‘Peaceful, Prosperous Future For All’

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Follow the latest updates from the United Nations General Assembly .

In his U.N. debut, Biden calls for global unity against common threats.

Biden urges unity against common threats in an ‘interconnected’ world, president biden called for an era of international cooperation in tackling global threats in his first address to the united nations general assembly as president..

We stand, in my view, at an inflection point in history. And I’m here today to share with you how the United States intends to work with partners and allies to answer these questions, and the commitment of my new administration help lead the world toward a more peaceful, prosperous future for all people. Instead of continuing to fight the wars of the past, we are fixing our eyes on devoting our resources to the challenges that hold the keys to our collective future. Ending this pandemic, addressing the climate crisis, managing the shifts in global power dynamics, shaping the rules of the world on vital issues like trade, cyber and emerging technologies, and facing the threat of terrorism as it stands today. We’ve ended 20 years of conflict in Afghanistan. And as we close this period of relentless war, we’re opening a new era of relentless diplomacy, of using the power of our development aid, to invest in new ways of lifting people up around the world, of renewing and defending democracy, of proving that no matter how challenging or how complex the problems you’re going to face government by and for the people is still the best way to deliver for all of our people. And as the United States turns our focus to the priorities and the regions of the world like the Indo-Pacific that are most consequential today and tomorrow, we’ll do so with our allies and partners through cooperation and multilateral institutions like the United Nations to amplify our collective strength and speed, our progress toward dealing with these global challenges. Our security, our prosperity and our very freedoms are interconnected, in my view, as never before, and so I believe we must work together as never before.

President Biden delivered his debut address to the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations on Tuesday amid strong new doubts about his ability to vault the United States back into a position of global leadership after his predecessor’s promotion of “America First” isolationism.

Speaking to a smaller than usual audience of his peers because of the still-raging Covid-19 pandemic, Mr. Biden called for a new era of global unity against the coronavirus, climate change, emerging technological threats and the expanding influence of autocratic nations such as China and Russia.

“No matter how challenging or how complex the problems we’re going to face, government by and for the people is still the best way to deliver for all of our people,” he said, insisting that the United States and its Western allies would remain vital partners.

“Our security, our prosperity and our very freedoms are interconnected, in my view as never before,” Mr. Biden said.

Calling for the world to make the use of force “our tool of last resort, not our first,” he defended his decision to end the U.S. war in Afghanistan, a chaotic withdrawal of American troops that left allies blindsided.

“Today, many of our greatest concerns cannot be solved or even addressed by the force of arms,” he said. “Bombs and bullets cannot defend against Covid-19 or its future variants.”

But Mr. Biden’s efforts to move America past President Donald J. Trump’s more confrontational policies come amid growing frustration among allies with his administration’s diplomatic approach.

His familiar refrain that the world must choose between democracy and autocracy looks different now that the Taliban are once again in control of Kabul, reversing many of the democratic gains of the past 20 years. Covid is resurging in much of the world. And the French just recalled their ambassador in outrage — not just over losing a $60 billion-plus submarine contract , but because it was made clear they are not in the inner circle of allies.

Mr. Biden and other leaders are gathering against a backdrop of disastrous climate change , polarized superpower relations and a devastating pandemic that has worsened the global rich-poor divide .

The event is a major test of credibility for Mr. Biden, who was among the first to address the 193-member General Assembly . The last to speak in the morning session was President Xi Jinping of China, via prerecorded video, bookending with the competing views of the two most powerful countries in the world.

Both leaders announced potentially significant steps to address climate change, a rare moment of common purpose: Mr. Biden said he intended to double the American financial contribution to developing countries’ efforts to tackle the climate crisis, and Mr. Xi said China would stop financing coal-fired power projects abroad, a major source of heat-trapping gases.

Secretary General António Guterres, who has openly fretted about the bitter rivalry between China and the United States, said he was encouraged by “the leaders of the world’s two largest economies regarding their commitment to climate action.”

Still, a dominant theme of Mr. Biden’s speech was what he described as the choice faced by the world between the democratic values espoused by the West and the disregard for them by China and other authoritarian governments.

“The future belongs to those who give their people the ability to breathe free, not those who seek to suffocate their people with an iron hand authoritarianism,” he said. “The authoritarians of the world, they seek to proclaim the end of the age of democracy, but they’re wrong.”

But the president vowed not to pursue a new era of sustained conflict with countries like China, saying that the United States would “compete vigorously and lead with our values and our strength to stand up for our allies and our friends.”

“We’re not seeking — say it again, we are not seeking — a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocs,” he said.

Climate change and the pandemic are also expected to dominate the week, and Mr. Biden planned to host a Covid summit on the sidelines to push other countries to increase capacity to manufacture vaccines for poor countries.

“This year has also brought widespread death and devastation from the borderless climate crisis,” Mr. Biden said. “Extreme weather events that we’ve seen in every part of the world — and you all know it and feel it — represent what the secretary general has rightly called Code Red for humanity.”

On Covid, Mr. Biden urged leaders to move more quickly to rein in a pandemic that has killed millions.

“We need a collective act of science and political will,” he said. “We need to act now to get shots in arms as fast as possible, and expand access to oxygen, tests, treatments, to save lives around the world.”

— Michael D. Shear ,  David E. Sanger and Rick Gladstone

The Taliban nominate a U.N. envoy, complicating a quandary for the General Assembly.

The Taliban have nominated an ambassador to represent Afghanistan at the United Nations, U.N. officials said Tuesday, injecting a new twist into what was already a delicate diplomatic quandary in the global organization.

The nomination, submitted to Secretary General António Guterres on Monday, sets up a showdown with the envoy of Afghanistan’s toppled government, Ghulam Isaczai, who has so far retained his post.

The showdown may not be resolved soon. But it raised the startling prospect that the Taliban — the violent, extremist Islamic movement that retook power last month as the American-backed government collapsed — would occupy an ambassador’s seat at the United Nations.

Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for Mr. Guterres, confirmed a Reuters report that the secretary general had been notified of the Taliban request in a letter signed by Amir Khan Muttaqi, identified as the movement’s foreign minister. The letter stated that the Taliban’s choice of U.N. ambassador was Suhail Shaheen, the movement’s spokesman based in Doha, Qatar.

The letter further stated that Mr. Muttaqi wanted to speak at the General Assembly, which got underway on Tuesday and ends next Monday. On Wednesday, Bilal Karimi, an aide to the Taliban’s chief spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, confirmed that the Taliban had sent the letter.

Mr. Dujarric said the Taliban’s request had been forwarded to the General Assembly’s Credentials Committee, a nine-member group that includes the United States. It remained unclear on Tuesday when the committee might evaluate the request.

Pakistan’s foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who knew about the Taliban’s request, said it raised a number of questions about Mr. Shaheen and those in the Taliban hierarchy who had picked him.

“Who is he representing?” Mr. Qureshi said, responding to questions about the request during a session with reporters on Afghanistan’s future, held by the Foreign Press Association on the sidelines of the General Assembly. “Who is he reporting to? What kind of communication can you have with a person at the U.N. who is not recognized? It is a complex and evolving situation.”

The Taliban’s triumphal return to control in Afghanistan is among the crises confronting the General Assembly this week, along with Myanmar’s brutal military coup early this year. Both events created a conundrum for the world’s biggest diplomatic gathering: Who is the rightful representative of each country?

The Taliban remain subject to U.N. economic sanctions. Many countries, including the United States, have said that any Taliban request to replace Afghanistan’s envoy at the 193-member organization would need to undergo careful review.

In Myanmar, the junta that seized power in February and has been widely condemned for a deadly crackdown on opponents also has sought to replace the U.N. ambassador of the deposed government with a junta loyalist.

Envoys from all kinds of political systems, including parliamentary democracies, monarchies and dictatorships, have long worked at the United Nations, the one place in the world where even governments that reject one another’s ideologies enjoy some measure of equal standing. Still, there are standards to verify the legitimacy of both the envoys and the governments they represent.

“Normally a country has the right to nominate somebody,” Volkan Bozkir, a Turkish statesman and the departing president of the General Assembly, told reporters at his farewell news conference this month.

“We can’t say, ‘I don’t like this government,’” Mr. Bozkir said, when seeking to resolve United Nations disputes over who is — and is not — a country’s rightful envoy.

A seat at the United Nations carries symbolic significance, a benchmark of a government’s credibility and acceptance in the world community even if rivals oppose it.

United Nations membership affords governments an opportunity not only to speak and be heard in the General Assembly, but also to participate in a range of other U.N. agencies like the World Health Organization and Human Rights Council. So the credentialing of a country’s ambassador to speak on its behalf is enormously important.

— Rick Gladstone and Farnaz Fassihi

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China won’t build more coal plants abroad, Xi Jinping says.

President Xi Jinping of China told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that his country would stop promoting the growth of the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel overseas, in a major step to address climate change: China, he said, “will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad.”

Mr. Xi’s announcement, in prerecorded remarks, was a surprise move designed to lift his country’s standing on global efforts to rein in global greenhouse emissions.

China currently produces the largest share of emissions. It is by far the biggest producer of coal domestically, and by far the largest financier of coal-fired power plants abroad, with an enormous 40 gigawatts of coal power planned.

A hint of China’s shift came earlier this year. For the first time in several years, China did not fund new coal projects as part of its global development undertaking, known as the Belt and Road Initiative, in the first six months of 2021.

Chinese coal projects have faced considerable pushback in countries like Bangladesh, Kenya and Vietnam, mainly by civil society groups.

The United States has repeatedly called out China for helping to build coal plants abroad. There was no immediate reaction from the White House on Tuesday.

What Mr. Xi did not say at the General Assembly was anything about China’s coal plants at home. It is building the largest fleet of coal-fired power plants within its borders, and most of its electricity still comes from coal. Nor did Mr. Xi make any new announcements about its plans to rein in emissions by 2030, beyond repeating his pledge to reach peak emissions before the end of this decade. That is nowhere near what is necessary to keep global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, beyond which the world faces a far greater likelihood of devastating climate consequences.

“This is an important step by the world’s biggest provider of overseas coal finance,” said Simon Steill, the environment minister of Grenada, which is among the world’s smallest countries most susceptible to the harm caused by climate change. “We look forward to seeing commensurate action domestically on coal.”

Burning coal is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions, and after a pandemic-year retreat, demand for coal is set to rise 4.5 percent this year, mainly to meet soaring electricity demand, according to the International Energy Agency.

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has called for a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants in practically every global speech he has made on climate change, his signature issue.

Globally, coal is at a crossroads .

Spending on coal projects dropped to its lowest level in a decade in 2019. And over the last 20 years, more coal-fired power plants have been retired or shelved than commissioned.

In some countries where new coal-fired power plants were only recently being built by the gigawatts, plans for new ones have been shelved (as in South Africa), reconsidered (as in Bangladesh) or facing funding troubles (as in Vietnam). In India, existing coal plants are running far below capacity and losing money. In the United States, they are being decommissioned quickly.

Jake Schmidt, the senior strategic adviser for international climate issues at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a research and advocacy group, called Mr. Xi’s announcement “a really big step.”

“China has been under a lot of pressure,” he said. “If it wants to be a climate leader, it can’t be the leading financier of overseas coal plants.”

— Somini Sengupta

Iran’s new president delivers an angry rebuke of the U.S. and is vague on the threatened nuclear deal.

Iran’s new hard-line new president delivered one the most forceful and angry denunciations of the United States at the General Assembly on Tuesday, showing little sign of flexibility on talks over the threatened nuclear agreement and describing American power in the world as both evil and irrelevant.

“Today, the world doesn’t care about ‘America First’ or ‘America is Back,’ the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, said in the prerecorded address, referring to the slogans of isolationism promoted by President Donald J. Trump and the international engagement espoused by President Biden.

It was Mr. Raisi’s first speech to the world body, and he almost immediately plunged into a narrative that cast the United States as a scourge that had unsuccessfully sought to use economic sanctions to pressure its foes.

“Sanctions are the U.S.’s new way of war with the nations of the world,” he said.

Mr. Raisi, who is on an American sanctions blacklist himself, said nothing about stalled negotiations aimed at rescuing the 2015 nuclear accord with big powers, which Mr. Trump renounced in 2018 and Mr. Biden has sought to restore. Iranian officials have said that all nuclear-related sanctions reimposed and expanded under Mr. Trump must be terminated before Iran resumes adhering to the accord.

At the same time, Mr. Raisi did not appear to rule out a solution to the impasse.

“While decisively defending all its rights and the interests of its people, Iran is keen to have large-scale political and economic cooperation and convergence with the rest of the world,” he said. “I seek effective interaction with all the countries of the world, especially with our neighbors, and shake their hands warmly.”

In several portions of his speech, when talking about U.S. sanctions on Iran, Mr. Raisi raised his voice and practically shouted, a contrast to his predecessor, President Hassan Rouhani, who sought in his U.N. speeches to appear more moderate and accommodating.

Mr. Raisi also criticized American policies on Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. He said the two lasting images of the past year were the Capitol riots of Jan. 6 and Afghans falling to their death after clinging to U.S. military jets evacuating Kabul.

The Iranian leader was speaking against a backdrop of expectations of back-room diplomacy at the General Assembly on ways to salvage his country’s endangered nuclear agreement with big powers.

His foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, is attending the General Assembly and has indicated a willingness to discuss rescuing the deal, which could provide Iran with enormous economic relief.

A foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday that talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the accord would resume in the next few weeks, after being suspended for months.

The agreement was intended to end many sanctions on Iran in return for verifiable pledges to severely curtail its supply of enriched uranium, which can fuel nuclear bombs. After Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the deal, Iran responded by gradually reneging on its pledges.

The Biden administration has supported restoring the accord, but Mr. Raisi, who took office in August , is expected to want new concessions. The other countries that are part of the agreement — Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — have all said they want to salvage it.

Biden vows to double aid on climate change, one of the key issues facing leaders.

President Biden said on Tuesday that his administration would seek to double aid aimed at helping developing nations address climate change, raising a pledge he made in April to about $11.4 billion a year by 2024.

The pledge is considered critical to the success of United Nations-led climate talks that are scheduled to take place in November in Glasgow, though whether and when the money will materialize depends on congressional approval.

Climate change is perhaps the most important subject at this year’s General Assembly meeting, with new scientific evidence showing a losing battle in what the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has called an existential struggle.

Many developing countries have repeatedly pointed out that rich countries have not delivered the $100 billion a year in aid that they promised under the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord. A tally by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found a nearly $20 billion shortfall.

Earlier in the year, Mr. Biden had pledged $5.7 billion, money that also requires approval from Congress.

Mr. Guterres has warned that a failure to make good on such promises could jeopardize cooperation to rein in global greenhouse emissions and avert the worst effects of warming. “This is a crucial question of trust,” he said at a climate summit organized by the White House last week.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, who will host the Glasgow talks, led a preparatory meeting with Mr. Guterres on Monday. Mr. Johnson told reporters afterward that the November gathering would be “a turning point for the world, and it is the moment when we have to grow up and take our responsibilities.”

The scientific consensus is that global temperature rise needs to be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Beyond that threshold, there is a far greater likelihood of devastating consequences, like widespread crop failures and the collapse of the polar ice sheets.

“We are no longer on the wrong path — we are on the edge of the cliff,” Abdulla Shahid, the foreign minister of the Maldives who is serving as president of the General Assembly, told the gathering on Tuesday. The low-lying Maldives is one of several nations at risk of devastating flooding because of rising sea levels.

Altogether, nearly 200 countries have made pledges to reduce or slow down emissions of planet-warming gases under the Paris agreement. But still missing are new pledges from 70 countries, including China, which currently produces the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions, and India and Saudi Arabia, both large economies with a significant climate footprint. Brazil, Mexico and Russia have submitted new pledges that have weaker emissions targets than their previous ones.

Mr. Biden’s revised pledge would make the United States, the largest emitter of planet-warming gases since the start of the industrial era, among the largest global climate donors, though advocacy groups said it still fell short of Washington’s fair share.

“It’s good to see President Biden is upping the amount that the U.S. is contributing,” Mohamed Adow, the director of Power Shift Africa, said in a statement. “However, the U.S. is still woefully short of what it owes.”

Tina Stege, the climate envoy of the Marshall Islands, said: “Watching Biden’s speech today, I thought — this is the announcement we’ve been waiting for. Now we’re looking to Congress to work with Biden to deliver, and to the rest of the G20 to follow suit.”

— Somini Sengupta and Rick Gladstone

Protesters denounce the leaders of Brazil and Iran.

With world leaders addressing the United Nations General Assembly about the most pressing issues, protesters took to the streets outside the New York City gathering on Tuesday to raise awareness over concerns that they say the leaders should be focused on changing.

During the speech by President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, activists protested his environmental and economic policies, which critics say have contributed to devastation of the Amazon rainforest and widespread hunger in Brazil.

Myriam Marques, 58, a nurse in Manhattan who is a member of the activist group Defend Democracy in Brazil, marched between police barricades with about 50 other people. She said they were demonstrating to oppose Mr. Bolsonaro’s speech and to stand up for the Indigenous people of Brazil.

“We are very thankful for our Indigenous peoples, because they are organizing, they want to save the forest, they want the rivers clean and they are fighting for that,” she said.

Earlier, campaigners had projected messages onto a building next to the Brooklyn Bridge that read, “Bolsonaro will lie at the United Nations” and “Bolsonaro is burning your future.”

Around 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, protesters holding Iranian flags and wearing #FreeIran shirts and hats held signs condemning a government they regard as criminal. Referring to Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s former judiciary head who became the country’s president in August, they chanted, “Prosecute Raisi now now now!”

A hard-line cleric who is a close ally of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mr. Raisi has been accused of playing a role in sending thousands of political prisoners to their deaths in the 1980s, and in lethal crackdowns on antigovernment protests in 2009 and 2019.

Khalil Khani, 71, a former professor at the University of Tehran who now lives in Phoenix, said he had flown to New York to protest what human rights groups have described as the killing of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran in 1988.

His group had brought signs and a large red book that Mr. Khani said was filled with 5,000 names of the killed political prisoners.

“The United Nations shouldn’t be a place for an executionist,” Mr. Khani said.

— Precious Fondren and Ernesto Londoño

Duterte accuses rich countries of hoarding Covid vaccines while the poor ‘wait for trickles.’

With his country badly lagging in Covid vaccinations, President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines railed against the world’s affluent countries at the United Nations on Tuesday, accusing them of hoarding vaccines while the poor “wait for trickles.”

Reinforcing his reputation as blunt speaker, Mr. Duterte described the rich-poor divide over vaccination rates as scandalous. His remarks, delivered via prerecorded video to the 193-member General Assembly, were among the most forceful criticisms of the inequities that have been laid bare by the pandemic.

Just 10 rich countries account for most of the 5.86 billion vaccine doses administered so far.

“There is a man-made drought of vaccines ravaging poor countries,” Mr. Duterte said. “Rich countries hoard lifesaving vaccines while poor nations wait for trickles. They now talk of booster shots, while developing countries consider half-doses just to get by.”

The disparity, he said, “is shocking beyond belief and must be condemned for what it is — a selfish act that can neither be justified rationally nor morally.”

The Philippines has one of the lowest Covid vaccination rates in Asia, with just 16 percent of its population fully inoculated, and Delta variant infections have surged in recent months. The country also is among only a handful that have kept schools closed throughout the pandemic, which has put its 27 million school-age children at an increased disadvantage .

Mr. Duterte has justified keeping elementary schools and high schools closed by arguing that students and their families need to be protected from contagion. But his policy has spawned a backlash among parents and students in a sprawling nation with endemic poverty. Many people, particularly in remote and rural areas, lack access to online learning.

— Rick Gladstone

Xi Jinping chastises the U.S., saying, ‘Democracy is not a special right reserved to an individual country.’

Xi’s general assembly remarks reject u.s. portrayal of china, president xi jinping of china, in a prerecorded speech to the united nations general assembly, pushed back against u.s. criticism of his government as authoritarian, asserting that the world should embrace “civilizations of various forms”.

Translator: We must strengthen solidarity, and promote mutual respect and win-win cooperation in conducting international relations. A world of peace and development should embrace civilizations of various forms, and must accommodate diverse paths to modernization. Democracy is not a special right reserved to any individual country, but a right for the people of all countries to enjoy. Recent developments in the international situation show, once again, that military intervention from the outside and so-called democratic transformation entail nothing but harm. We need to advocate peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, which are the common values of humanity and reject the practice of forming small circles or zero-sum games. Differences and problems among countries — hardly avoidable — need to be handled through dialogue and cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual respect. One country’s success does not have to mean another country’s failure. And the world is big enough to accommodate common development and progress of all countries.

President Xi Jinping of China used his General Assembly speech on Tuesday to reject the American portrayal of his government as authoritarian, predatory and expansionist, asserting that he supports peaceful development for all peoples and that democracy is “not a special right reserved to an individual country.”

Mr. Xi’s prerecorded speech was broadcast hours after President Biden addressed the gathering in person at the United Nations headquarters in New York, the biggest diplomatic convocation since the pandemic began. Mr. Biden reinforced his view that the world faces a choice between democratic freedoms and the authoritarian model exemplified by China.

The two leaders are engaged in a contentious rivalry that the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has described as a dysfunctional relationship between the two dominant powers in the world that could devolve into a new Cold War.

While Mr. Xi’s language was restrained, he also alluded to China’s anger over the Biden administration’s announcement of a new security pact with Australia that will put U.S. nuclear-powered subs in the Australian arsenal . That deal upended an Australian contract for conventional French submarines, a shift that outraged France . It also represents a new military challenge to China as it asserts increased military muscularity in the Asia Pacific region.

Without mentioning the United States or Australia by name, Mr. Xi said the world must “reject the practice of forming small circles or zero-sum games.”

Disputes between countries, Mr. Xi said, “hardly avoidable, need to be handled through dialogue and cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual respect.”

The competition between the United States and China for influence at the United Nations has intensified under the Biden administration, which has sought to strengthen America’s role in the global organization after four years of cutbacks undertaken by President Donald J. Trump.

The United States and China are the leading providers of financial resources to the 193-member organization.

In Mr. Xi’s 2020 General Assembly speech, he sought to distinguish China from the isolationist posture that Mr. Trump took. Mr. Xi described China as a responsible global citizen and champion of multilateralism that also gave a greater voice to the developing world.

An earlier version of this article misquoted the Chinese leader Xi Jinping's address at the United Nations General Assembly. He said international disputes must be handled "on the basis of equality and mutual respect," not "on the basis of quality and mutual respect."

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In pictures: Scenes from the U.N. gathering.

As world leaders addressed the annual gathering of the 193-member United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, they vowed to make progress on issues of global importance.

A million viewers tuned into a U.N. livestream — to watch a Korean pop group.

The seven members of the Korean pop group BTS — a multibillion-dollar act known for its dynamic dance moves, catchy lyrics and frenzied fans — promoted coronavirus vaccines and lauded young people for their resilience during a nearly seven-minute speech at the U.N. headquarters on Monday.

Accompanying President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, who designated them as special presidential envoy for future generations and culture, the band then showed a video of their hit song “Permission to Dance.”

The video showed the young crooners dancing in the empty aisles of the Assembly Hall — where presidents and autocrats have lobbed threats of annihilation and diplomats have staged walkouts — and later outside the complex.

The band’s legion of fans followed along intently on the U.N.’s YouTube channel, flooding a live chat with gushing messages, many with purple heart emojis that have become a calling card.

“I’ve heard that people in their teens and 20s today are being referred to as Covid’s lost generation,” said Kim Nam-joon, the band’s lead singer, who performs under the stage name RM (formerly Rap Monster). “But I think it’s a stretch to say they’re lost just because the path they tread can’t be seen by grown-up eyes.”

It was not the first time that the band, a dominant force in the Korean pop music space known as K-pop, had appeared at the United Nations. In 2018, BTS visited the United Nations to help UNICEF promote Generation Unlimited , a campaign dedicated to educating young people and providing them vocational training.

On Monday, a livestream of the band’s appearance on the U.N.’s YouTube channel racked up about one million views. Later in the day, the view count surpassed six million.

— Neil Vigdor

The U.N. secretary general urges nations to address a ‘cascade of crises.’

‘we are on the edge of an abyss,’ u.n. secretary general says, antónio guterres, the united nations secretary general, pressed for increased cooperation in facing a global “cascade of crises,” including wars, the pandemic, climate change and a polarization of world powers during a speech at the general assembly..

I’m here to sound the alarm. The world must wake up. We are on the edge of an abyss, and moving in the wrong direction. Our world has never been more threatened or more divided. We face the greatest cascade of crises in our lifetimes. The Covid-19 pandemic has supersized glaring inequalities. The climate crisis is pummeling the planet, upheaval from Afghanistan to Ethiopia to Yemen and beyond. A thwarted peace. A surge of mistrust and misinformation is polarizing people and paralyzing societies. Human rights are in the fires and science is under assault, and the economic lifelines for the most vulnerable are coming too little and too late, if they come at all. Solidarity is missing in action just when we need it most. Excellencies, we face a moment of truth. Now is the time to deliver. Now is the time to restore trust, and now is the time to inspire hope. And I do have hope — the problems we have created are problems we can solve. Humanity has shown that we are capable of great things when we work together, and that is the raison d’être of our United Nations.

Threatened by wars, climate change and a continuing pandemic, the world is becoming increasingly divided, the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, warned on Tuesday in a sobering speech that called on nations to act.

“I am here to sound the alarm: The world must wake up,” Mr. Guterres said in the opening address of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, adding that the world faced “the greatest cascade of crises in our lifetimes.”

Covid-19 has exposed glaring inequalities, he said, pointing to a surplus of vaccines in wealthier nations while poorer countries remain largely unvaccinated . A window for combating climate change, which has already been blamed for driving scorching temperatures and other disasters, was “rapidly closing,” he said.

Peace remained “a distant dream” in places like Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Myanmar, Mr. Guterres noted, adding that misinformation and mistrust in institutions had polarized people.

And although he did not refer to the countries by name, he vocalized fears that a deepening competition between China and the United States, the world’s two largest economies, would further divide the world geopolitically — calling it “far less predictable than the Cold War.”

“Instead of the path of solidarity,” Mr. Guterres said, “we are on a dead end to destruction.”

The remarks were an indictment of the state of world affairs at the opening of a meeting meant to foster multilateralism and to demonstrate solidarity against global challenges. Mr. Guterres called on nations to create an agenda of peace and to institute climate-friendly fiscal and political overhauls.

Countries, he added, also needed to protect rights for women, who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, and address power imbalances between genders.

Nonetheless, hinting at hope for the future, Mr. Guterres, a Portuguese statesman who is serving his second term as secretary general , said: “The problems we have created are problems we can solve.”

— Isabella Kwai

Unvaccinated and defiant, Bolsonaro pushes back against criticism in his U.N. speech.

Brazilian president says he is not vaccinated, during a meeting with prime minister boris johnson of britain, who hailed the astrazeneca vaccine, brazil’s president, jair bolsonaro, said he had not been inoculated against covid-19..

“Boris.” “Mr. President, how are you? Very nice to see you. Well, welcome, welcome, welcome. [unclear] Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. How’s that? How are you doing?” “OK.” “Very good.” “Thank you.” “Come here.” “AstraZeneca —” it’s a great vaccine. I had AstraZeneca. Thanks, everybody. Get AstraZeneca vaccine. I had it twice.” “Not yet.” [laughter]

President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil kicked off the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday by defending the use of ineffective drugs to treat the coronavirus and by pushing back on criticism of his government’s environmental record.

Brazil’s far-right president said doctors should have had more leeway in administering untested medications for Covid-19, adding that he had been among those who recovered after “off label” treatment with an anti-malaria pill that studies have found ineffective to treat the disease.

“History and science will hold everyone accountable,” said Mr. Bolsonaro, whose handling of the pandemic in South America’s largest country has been widely criticized.

Mr. Bolsonaro’s decision to not get vaccinated against the coronavirus has loomed large over his first couple of days in New York. It made for an awkward moment during a meeting on Monday with Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, who hailed the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was developed at Oxford University.

“Get AstraZeneca vaccines,” Mr. Johnson said during his meeting with the Brazilian president. “I’ve had it twice.”

Mr. Bolsonaro pointed to himself and said: “Not yet.”

Brazil’s president has led one of the world’s most criticized responses to the pandemic. Mr. Bolsonaro repeatedly downplayed the threat the virus posed, railed against quarantine measures and was fined for refusing to wear a mask in the capital.

His government was slow to secure access to coronavirus vaccines even as the virus overwhelmed hospitals across the country. Covid-19 has killed more than 590,000 people in Brazil.

Mr. Bolsonaro, who had a mild case of Covid-19 in July of last year, has said he is in no hurry to get a shot. Earlier this year, the president said he was undecided about getting a vaccine.

“After the last Brazilian gets vaccinated, if there’s a spare shot, I will decide whether or not I get vaccinated,” he said in a televised video , adding, “that’s the example the boss must provide.”

His unvaccinated status has caused logistical problems when it comes to finding a place to eat in New York, where restaurants require that patrons show proof of inoculation for indoor seating. Mr. Bolsonaro and his traveling party have been taking the rule in stride. On Sunday, one of his ministers posted a photo on Twitter of the president and several top aides eating pizza standing up on the street.

Jantar de luxo em NYC. @jairbolsonaro @gilsonmachadont @mqueiroga2 @andersongtorres pic.twitter.com/SVQuFZXHGY — General Ramos (@GenLuizRamos) September 20, 2021

“A luxurious dinner in NYC,” joked the minister, Luiz Ramos.

On Tuesday, Mr. Bolsonaro started his speech by telling the assembly that his nation was unfairly portrayed in the press.

“I came here to show a Brazil that is different from what is shown in the newspapers and on television,” he said. “Brazil has changed, and a lot, since we assumed office in January 2019.”

Mr. Bolsonaro’s government has weakened enforcement of environmental laws and hollowed out the agencies responsible for enforcing them. Yet on Tuesday he argued that Brazil should be applauded for how much of its forests remain intact and said the country could sustainably develop land in environmentally critical regions like the Amazon.

“The future of green jobs is in Brazil,” he said.

— Ernesto Londoño

Female leaders are more prominent this year.

At last year’s General Assembly, which was held almost entirely virtually because of the pandemic, the first 51 leaders to speak were men, presenting optics that contradicted the organization’s avowed commitment to gender parity.

This year, the first woman to speak was No. 6 on the list.

The speaker, President Zuzana Caputova of Slovakia, delivered her address via prerecorded video, following live addresses by the presidents of Brazil, the United States, the Maldives and Colombia and the emir of Qatar.

Protocol for the General Assembly’s speaker schedule is based partly on a first-come, first-served basis. But the glaring absence of prominent women last year raised concerns that gender should be taken into consideration.

Ms. Caputova made a point of raising women’s rights in her speech on Tuesday, including remarks on the threat to women created by the Taliban’s triumph in Afghanistan.

She and other female leaders, including the prime ministers of Iceland and New Zealand, have organized a call to support Afghan women and girls, and she called on other countries “to join forces to ensure this turns into concrete steps.”

The Slovak leader concluded her speech by emphasizing inclusiveness.

“We cannot save our planet if we leave out the vulnerable — the women, the girls, the minorities,” she said. “The silent pandemic of gender-based violence can prove lethal to the health of our societies.”

A top European official calls for a ‘pause and reset’ in the U.S. relationship.

A top European Union official made a plea on Tuesday to “pause and reset” the relationship between the bloc and the United States as a diplomatic spat between France and the Biden administration has become a European issue.

“There is a growing feeling in Europe — and I say this with regret — that something is broken in our trans-Atlantic relations,” Thierry Breton, the E.U. trade commissioner, said at a virtual event organized by the Atlantic Council , a Washington-based research organization, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

“Trust is not a given,” Mr. Breton said. “And after the latest events, there is a strong perception that trust between the E.U. and U.S. has been eroded.”

Mr. Breton was the latest official from the bloc to question the Biden administration’s commitment to a strong alliance with the European Union. Tensions have escalated in recent days after Australia scrapped a $66 billion agreement to buy French-built submarines in favor of U.S.-manufactured, nuclear-powered ones.

France has reacted with anger to the security deal among the United States, Britain and Australia , and recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia last week.

The submarine deal came after a chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan about which European leaders said they had not been consulted. Many officials who had welcomed the election of President Biden — and his pledge that “America is back” — are now expressing concerns.

While the Biden administration has tried to play down the spat, European officials have sharpened their tone, although they’ve stopped short of concrete action.

“What does it mean, ‘America is back’?” Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, which represents the leaders of the bloc’s 27 members, told reporters in New York on Monday. “Is America back in America or somewhere else? We don’t know.”

The words of Mr. Breton and Mr. Michel have echoed the position of Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, who on Monday told CNN that she would seek to “know what happened and why” before the bloc could “keep on going with business as usual” with the United States.

But despite such rhetoric from France and E.U. officials, there is concern in some European capitals that the dispute could hurt the bloc’s wider interests. Though European countries have showed solidarity to France in public, in private some officials have called the clash a bilateral matter between France and the United States.

A European diplomat said that President Emmanuel Macron of France had often taken a leading role in promoting more “strategic autonomy” for Europe, only to realize that not many E.U. members were following.

And a lawmaker at the European Parliament took a nuanced view. “Of course we cannot act as if nothing had happened,” Reinhard Bütikofer, the lawmaker, said on Monday . “But how the E.U. will react is not decided unilaterally by Paris.”

— Elian Peltier

Who is speaking at the U.N. General Assembly, who isn’t — and why did Brazil go first?

Several prominent leaders delivered in-person addresses at the U.N. General Assembly meeting on Tuesday, including President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, an avowed Covid skeptic whose mismanagement of the pandemic threatens his political future . Mr. Bolsonaro also created a stir by vowing to defy the meeting’s vaccination requirement.

Many leaders are opting to use prerecorded video, as was done last year, or to have a lower-ranking representative speak in person, and the absence of a particular country’s leader this year can send a message.

Perhaps the most prominent leader to skip a personal appearance at the General Assembly is President Xi Jinping of China, an increasingly important financial contributor to the United Nations and a rival with the United States for influence there, an underlying source of tension.

Mr. Xi originally intended to have his deputy prime minister represent China, but in a last-minute change posted Monday by U.N. officials, Mr. Xi addressed the General Assembly by prerecorded video on Tuesday.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia will not attend either, and his foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, will speak instead.

In what may be another sign of France’s anger at the United States over a secret arms deal with Australia , the French president, Emmanuel Macron, abandoned the idea of speaking at the gathering even by video. Instead he tapped his foreign minister, Jean-Yves LeDrian, to speak, which now could happen on the final day.

Iran’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi, also sent a prerecorded speech, skipping the opportunity for personal diplomacy that could help save Iran’s near-moribund nuclear agreement with major powers.

Mr. Bolsonaro was the first head of state to address the gathering when speeches began on Tuesday morning. Brazil has spoken first since the mid-1950s, and U.N. protocol officials say that the tradition began because at the time no other country’s leader was willing to take on that role. That position is now considered a coveted slot that can help set the tone of the week.

The order of speakers generally adheres to the principle that the leader of the host country goes second, followed by other heads of state, heads of government, vice presidents, crown princes, foreign ministers, then deputies and ambassadors. It is also determined by the date when each of the 193 members makes the request.

As the General Assembly returns to New York, so does the traffic.

In another sign of New York City’s steady recovery from the pandemic, another fall tradition is returning to its streets: United Nations gridlock.

Traffic jams and security-related street closures are expected to turn Midtown Manhattan into a labyrinth this week as the General Assembly meets in person again. World leaders, including President Biden, and their motorcades will be descending upon streets that were largely cleared of traffic at the height of the pandemic but have steadily grown more congested as regular life resumes.

“There will be multiple closures, detours and checkpoints around the Midtown area,” Kim Y. Royster, the New York Police Department’s chief of transportation, said at a news conference .

Whereas last year’s gathering was held virtually, this week a large chunk of the east side of Midtown Manhattan, from 42nd Street to 57th Street and from First Avenue to Fifth Avenue, will be closed or restricted to traffic from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., Chief Royster said.

Other streets, including a stretch of the F.D.R. Drive, a major north-south artery through Manhattan, could also be closed at times through Sept. 30, according to a city transportation agency website .

Chief Royster asked people to avoid driving or making deliveries in East Midtown during the U.N. meeting. Only vehicles that pass a checkpoint will be allowed in the area right around the United Nations, along 42nd Street between First and Second Avenues.

City transportation officials have also issued gridlock alert days — an annual warning of the worst congestion — for this week, the first time they have done so since 2019. There are 19 gridlock alert days for 2021, including Sept. 20-24 and Sept. 27, plus around the holiday season in November and December.

On Monday, a man was arrested and accused of threatening to kill the president of the Dominican Republic during his trip to New York. Beyond that, law enforcement officials said there were no credible threats against the U.N. meeting, though they were expecting widespread disruptions from crowds and dozens of protests.

“Our traffic agents will be deployed to intersections to make sure that the traffic is flowing and make sure that we provide safety to the pedestrians and bicyclists alike,” Chief Royster said, adding: “The city is opening up and we want to make sure the city continues to move and make sure everyone is safe.”

— Winnie Hu

Here’s how pandemic rules are shaping the U.N. gathering.

Unlike in 2020, when the U.N. General Assembly session was conducted almost entirely virtually because of the pandemic, more than 100 world leaders and other high-ranking representatives intend to deliver their speeches in person this year.

But access to the 16-acre United Nations complex in Manhattan remains strictly limited, with mandatory mask-wearing and other Covid prevention measures. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield of the United States told reporters that the measures were meant to ensure that the General Assembly “does not become a superspreader event.”

Confusion erupted last week over a New York City requirement that all General Assembly participants show proof of vaccination. This year’s president of the General Assembly, Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid of the Maldives, endorsed the requirement .

U.N. officials have said that the organization’s headquarters staff must be vaccinated,.

In what appeared to be a good-will gesture, New York City’s municipal government deployed a mobile vaccine clinic outside the United Nations complex, offering free testing and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

Many speakers this year still chose to deliver their addresses via prerecorded video, as was done by all leaders last year when vaccines were still under development and each delegation in the General Assembly hall was limited to two people. Nearly all events at the 2020 event were conducted virtually.

This year each member state may seat as many as four people in the General Assembly hall.

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António Guterres (UN Secretary-General) on the…

1 November 2021

António Guterres (UN Secretary-General) on the Opening of the World Leader's Summit - COP26 (Glasgow, United Kingdom)

Full Remarks [as delivered]

7 Powerful Speeches from the UN General Assembly

By Rajesh Mirchandani on October 2, 2019

Let’s face it, many speeches from world leaders at the 2019 United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) probably will not make the history books. But the inspiring oratory of many other attendees will and should.

Across the week, inside the UN and outside, a huge and diverse array of speakers proved themselves to be leaders. From the gut-wrenching passion of ‘how dare you,’ to a surprisingly personal moment from a Prime Minister, to impassioned arguments about the ecological expertise of indigenous communities, here are seven speeches that moved and mobilized us. We know there are many others, but want to share these with you.

(Note: We’ve edited some for length and clarity, and provided a link in case you want to watch the whole thing – they’re worth it!)

Youth Climate Activist Bruno Rodriguez: ‘Power will cede nothing without struggle’

Bruno Rodriguez, a 19-year-old Argentine climate activist from the group  Jovenes por el clima Argentina , was one of the first speakers at the Youth Climate Summit, inspiring and demanding action:

“Power will cede nothing without struggle, and that is why we decided to fight in the streets, alongside the working-class people of our country and marginalized communities. … Many times, we hear that our generation is going to be the one dealing with the problems that current leaders have created. We will not wait passively to become that future.

“The time is now for us to be leaders and that is why we are here: to lead. My message to the Secretary-General is simple: Let’s stop demanding world leaders listen to science. Let’s start demanding them to act on science!”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: ‘We, the leaders, must deliver for we, the peoples’

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivered a powerful speech to world leaders in the main hall of the General Assembly. He gave a stirring defense of the need for international cooperation to solve our shared challenges, and he reminded world leaders why they are in power in the first place:

“We are living in a world of disquiet. A great many people fear getting trampled, thwarted, left behind. Machines take their jobs. Traffickers take their dignity. Demagogues take their rights. Warlords take their lives. Fossil fuels take their future.

“And yet people believe in the spirit and ideas that bring us to this hall. They believe in the United Nations. But do they believe in us? Do they believe as leaders, we will put people first? Because we, the leaders, must deliver for we, the peoples.”

Indigenous Climate Activists: ‘Don’t talk about the future of us without us.’

At the Social Good Summit, indigenous climate activists stated simply but forcefully that traditional communities possess deep-seated knowledge of how to protect the natural world – and should be listened to.

The speakers included Amy Cordalis, General Counsel for the Yurok tribe of Northern California, and Hindou Oumar Ibrahim, a UN SDG Advocate and member of a nomadic tribe from Lake Chad, 90% of whose waters have evaporated in the past decades, even though 30 million people subsist on its shores. Their logic is simple; their loss tragic.

Amy: “In the Yurok creation story…the creator made the land and the waste and the animals, and the plants, and then made humans. And told the people if you live in balance with all of this you will never want for anything. And for thousands and thousands of years, that’s how Yurok people lived. …

“With that great privilege of being close to the land and benefiting from the land, we also have an obligation to protect the land, and to see the land as a part of ourselves. … [That’s when] you realize that if you use that plastic bottle, if you pollute, if you use that toxic chemical, if you consume, consume, consume, your actions are actually harming yourself.”

Hindou: “In all developed countries, when you wake up in the morning, you check your phone to see the weather forecast. If it’s going to be cold, you have your jacket; rainy, you have an umbrella; sunny, sunglasses. Let me give you my grandmother’s app. She observes trees, she observes cloud movement, wind directions, and she can tell you if it’s going to rain in the next couple of hours. She can predict for you if the next year is going to be a good year, like a rainy season or not, because her life depends on it.

“The food that she gives to her children depends on this season. … She has to look to the environment to give her the information so she can predict the health of her family. So my grandmother is better than the app that we have. An indigenous grandmother does not need electricity, she doesn’t need the internet, but she can tell you exactly. Why? Because she lives in harmony with Mother Earth. Indigenous peoples can help in the climate movement, but we need to be at the table to take decisions. Don’t talk about the future of us without us.”

World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: ‘Our vision is not health for some’  

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reminded leaders gathered at the summit on Universal Health Coverage that, through the Sustainable Development Goals, they all signed up to provide affordable health care for everyone, everywhere:

“Ultimately health is a political choice. A choice that you have the power to make. WHO is committed to supporting every country’s transition to a health system based on strong primary health care…a world in which health is not a cost but an investment, a world in which health propels sustainable development, a world in which all of us enjoy the health we deserve.

“Our vision is not health for some. It’s not health for most. It’s health for all. Poor and rich. Able and disabled. Old and young. Urban and rural. Citizen and refugee. Everyone everywhere. Because health is an end in itself, because it’s a fundamental right and also a means to prosperity.”

Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel: ‘Homosexuality is not a choice’

Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel spent much of his General Assembly speech laying out the country’s commitment to tackling climate change and to being carbon neutral by 2050, as well as his country’s support for international cooperation across issues including the Iran nuclear deal, migration, gender-based violence, and conflict and human rights.

But it was his comments on equality that win him a spot on our list, especially as Prime Minister Bettel is the first openly gay national leader to address LGBTQ rights at the UN General Assembly. He said:

“In 2020, we will mark the 25th anniversary of the Beijing conference, which set up the Commission on the Status of Women, the CSW. I’m asking myself whether in today’s world we’d be able to re-sign that convention…particularly when listen to the words coming from some quarters with regards to the rights of women.

“You can make the same charge about the rights of people to freely live out the expression of their sexual orientation. The day before yesterday here in New York I headlined a debate about hate speech targeting LGBTI people. As we are all aware, or we ought to be aware, homosexuality is not a choice. Let it be accepted that this is how people are. What is a choice is homophobia, and we should not tolerate it.”

Founder of SheSays Trisha Shetty: ‘We’re laughing to make sense of this madness’

2020 marks one third of the way through the 15-year timeline to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals, and as a recent UN report underlines, there has been some progress but we remain off track to meet the global goals. We have a decade to deliver for people and planet.

The UN Foundation is working with several other organizations to make 2020 a super year of activism and to build the biggest coalition to demand, implement, and accelerate action to kickstart the final decade of delivery. During the UN General Assembly, we and our partners hosted an event at the UN to announce our efforts – stay tuned for more on that.

Opening that event, Trisha Shetty, Indian activist and founder of SheSays, which works to stop gender discrimination in India, transported us to her country to remind us why we must do more to reach those left furthest behind:

“A few months ago, I was in Assam, a state up northeast in India, doing a field trip, going from village to village. …. [I went] to meet women in those communities, to understand their challenges, and how they are hustling to get stuff done. Most of these women live below the poverty line, barely making a few cents a day, complaining about how a lot of the men are prone to alcohol addiction, not carrying their weight.

“They told me a story. They have one ambulance there. And every time someone is sick, they put the person in the ambulance. But the ambulance is barely functioning, and the roads are terrible. So what they do is they put the person in the ambulance and then 10 people surround the ambulance and physically push the ambulance with the hope that the ambulance will kickstart and get the person to the hospital. And they all laughed. And I laughed. And it took me a minute to realize we’re laughing to make sense of this madness.

“The reason I am sharing this with you is I want you to for a brief minute think of your community, think of your people, because those are my people. I made a commitment to them, to make sure their struggles are heard, to make sure they have access to their fundamental rights. Because currently they are being deprived of access to their fundamental rights.”

Youth Climate Activist Greta Thunberg: ‘How dare you?’

We saved Greta Thunberg’s powerful speech for last because it seemed to underline the anger, passion, and urgency of many other speakers throughout the week, and because a movement is about more than one person – and we think she would agree. At the Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit, Greta’s powerful admonition to world leaders started with a promise – and a warning: “We are watching.”

“How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. …You are still not mature enough to tell it like it is. You are failing us. But young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you and if you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with us.

“Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up and change is coming whether you like it or not.”

Related Articles

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3 Key Takeaways from the Sustainable Development Goals Summit

By Jenni Lee October 1, 2019

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The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500

Remarks by President   Biden Before the 76th Session of the United Nations General   Assembly

United Nations Headquarters New York, New York

10:01 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, my fellow delegates, to all those who dedicate themselves to this noble mission of this institution: It’s my honor to speak to you for the first time as President of the United States. 

We meet this year in a moment of — intermingled with great pain and extraordinary possibility.  We’ve lost so much to this devastating — this devastating pandemic that continues to claim lives around the world and impact so much on our existence. 

We’re mourning more than 4.5 million people — people of every nation from every background.  Each death is an individual heartbreak.  But our shared grief is a poignant reminder that our collective future will hinge on our ability to recognize our common humanity and to act together. 

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the clear and urgent choice that we face here at the dawning of what must be a decisive decade for our world — a decade that will quite literally determine our futures.

As a global community, we’re challenged by urgent and looming crises wherein lie enormous opportunities if — if — we can summon the will and resolve to seize these opportunities. 

Will we work together to save lives, defeat COVID-19 everywhere, and take the necessary steps to prepare ourselves for the next pandemic?  For there will be another one.  Or will we fail to harness the tools at our disposal as the more virulent and dangerous variants take hold?

Will we meet the threat of challenging climate — the challenging climate we’re all feeling already ravaging every part of our world with extreme weather?  Or will we suffer the merciless march of ever-worsening droughts and floods, more intense fires and hurricanes, longer heatwaves and rising seas?

Will we affirm and uphold the human dignity and human rights under which nations in common cause, more than seven decades ago, formed this institution? 

Will we apply and strengthen the core tenets of inter- — of the international system, including the U.N. Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as we seek to shape the emergence of new technologies and deter new threats?  Or will we allow these universal — those universal principles to be trampled and twisted in the pursuit of naked political power? 

In my view, how we answer these questions in this moment — whether we choose to fight for our shared future or not — will reverberate for generations yet to come.

Simply put: We stand, in my view, at an inflection point in history.  And I’m here today to share with you how the United States intends to work with partners and allies to answer these questions and the commitment of my new administration to help lead the world toward a more peaceful, prosperous future for all people.

Instead of continuing to fight the wars of the past, we are fixing our eyes on devoting our resources to the challenges that hold the keys to our collective future: ending this pandemic; addressing the climate crisis; managing the shifts in global power dynamics; shaping the rules of the world on vital issues like trade, cyber, and emerging technologies; and facing the threat of terrorism as it stands today.

We’ve ended 20 years of conflict in Afghanistan.  And as we close this period of relentless war, we’re opening a new era of relentless diplomacy; of using the power of our development aid to invest in new ways of lifting people up around the world; of renewing and defending democracy; of proving that no matter how challenging or how complex the problems we’re going to face, government by and for the people is still the best way to deliver for all of our people.

And as the United States turns our focus to the priorities and the regions of the world, like the Indo-Pacific, that are most consequential today and tomorrow, we’ll do so with our allies and partners, through cooperation at multilateral institutions like the United Nations, to amplify our collective strength and speed, our progress toward dealing with these global challenges.

There’s a fundamental truth of the 21st century within each of our own countries and as a global community that our own success is bound up with others succeeding as well.

To deliver for our own people, we must also engage deeply with the rest of the world. 

To ensure that our own future, we must work together with other partners — our partners — toward a shared future. 

Our security, our prosperity, and our very freedoms are interconnected, in my view, as never before.  And so, I believe we must work together as never before.

Over the last eight months, I have prioritized rebuilding our alliances, revitalizing our partnerships, and recognizing they’re essential and central to America’s enduring security and prosperity.

We have reaffirmed our sacred NATO Alliance to Article 5 commitment.  We’re working with our Allies toward a new strategic concept that will help our Alliance better take on evolving threats of today and tomorrow.

We renewed our engagement with the European Union, a fundamental partner in tackling the full range of significant issues facing our world today. 

We elevated the Quad partnership among Australia, India, Japan, and the United States to take on challenges ranging from health security to climate to emerging technologies.

We’re engaging with regional institutions — from ASEAN to the African Union to the Organization of American States — to focus on people’s urgent needs for better health and better economic outcomes. 

We’re back at the table in international forums, especially the United Nations, to focus attention and to spur global action on shared challenges. 

We are reengaged at the World Health Organization and working in close partnership with COVAX to deliver lifesaving vaccines around the world. 

We rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement, and we’re running to retake a seat on the Human Rights Council next year at the U.N.

And as the United States seeks to rally the world to action, we will lead not just with the example of our power but, God willing, with the power of our example.

Make no mistake: The United States will continue to defend ourselves, our Allies, and our interests against attack, including terrorist threats, as we prepare to use force if any is necessary, but — to defend our vital U.S. national interests, including against ongoing and imminent threats.

But the mission must be clear and achievable, undertaken with the informed consent of the American people and, whenever possible, in partnership with our Allies.

U.S. military power must be our tool of last resort, not our first, and it should not be used as an answer to every problem we see around the world.

Indeed, today, many of our greatest concerns cannot be solved or even addressed through the force of arms.  Bombs and bullets cannot defend against COVID-19 or its future variants.

To fight this pandemic, we need a collective act of science and political will.  We need to act now to get shots in arms as fast as possible and to expand access to oxygen, tests, treatments to save lives around the world.

And for the future, we need to create a new mechanism to finance global health security that builds on our existing development assistance, and Global Health Thr- — and a Global Health Threat Counc- — Council that is armed with the tools we need to monitor and identify emerging pandemics so that we can take immediate action.

Already, the United States has put more than $15 billion toward global COVID respon- — the global COVID response.  We’ve shipped more than 160 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to other countries.  This includes 130 million doses from our own supply and the first tranches of the half a billion doses of Pfizer vaccine we purchased to donate through COVAX.

Planes carrying vaccines from the United States have already landed in 100 countries, bringing people all over the world a little “dose of hope,” as one American nurse termed it to me.  A “dose of hope,” direct from the American people — and, importantly, no strings attached.

And tomorrow, at the U.S.-hosted Global 19 — COVID-19 Summit, I’ll be announcing additional commitments as we seek to advance the fight against COVID-19 and hold ourselves accountable around specific targets on three key challenges: saving lives now, vaccinating the world, and building back better.

This year has also brought widespread death and devastation from the borderless climate crisis.  The extreme weather events that we have seen in every part of the world — and you all know it and feel it — represent what the Secretary-General has rightly called “code red for humanity.”  And the scientists and experts are telling us that we’re fast approaching a “point of no return,” in the literal sense.

To keep within our reach the vital goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, every nation needs to bring their highest-possible ambitions to the table when we meet in Glasgow for COP26 and then to have to keep raising our collective ambition over time.

In April, I announced the United States’ ambitious new goal under the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the United States by 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, as we work toward achieving a clean-energy economy with net-zero emissions by 2050.

And my administration is working closely with our Congress to make the critical investments in green infrastructure and electric vehicles that will help us lock in progress at home toward our climate goals.

And the best part is: Making these ambitious investments isn’t just good climate policy, it’s a chance for each of our countries to invest in ourselves and our own future.  It’s an enormous opportunity to create good-paying jobs for workers in each of our countries and to spur long-term economic growth that will improve the quality of life for all of our people.

We also have to support the countries and people that will be hit hardest and that have the fewest resources to help them adapt. 

In April, I announced the United States will double our public international financing to help developing nations tackle the climate crisis.  And today, I’m proud to announce that we’ll work with the Congress to double that number again, including for adaptation efforts.

This will make the United States a leader in public climate finance.  And with our added support, together with increased private capital and other — from other donors, we’ll be able to meet the goal of mobilizing $100 billion to support climate action in developing nations.

As we deal with these crises, we’re also encountering a new era — an era of new technologies and possibilities that have the potential to release and reshape every aspect of human existence.  And it’s up to all of us to determine whether these technologies are a force to empower people or to deepen repression.

As new technologies continue to evolve, we’ll work together with our democratic partners to ensure that new advances in areas from biotechnology, to quantum computing, 5G, artificial intelligence, and more are used to lift people up, to solve problems, and advance human freedom — not to suppress dissent or target minority communities.

And the United States intends to make a profound investment in research and innovation, working with countries at all stages of economic development to develop new tools and technologies to help us tackle the challenges of this second quarter of the 21st century and beyond.

We’re hardening our critical infrastructure against cyberattacks, disrupting ransomware networks, and working to establish clear rules of the road for all nations as it relates to cyberspace. 

We reserve the right to respond decisively to cyberattacks that threaten our people, our allies, or our interests. 

We will pursue new rules of global trade and economic growth that strive to level the playing field so that it’s not artificially tipped in favor of any one country at the expense of others and every nation has a right and the opportunity to compete fairly.

We will strive to ensure that basic labor rights, environmental safeguards, and intellectual property are protected and that the benefits of globalization are shared broadly throughout all our societies.

We’ll continue to uphold the longstanding rules and norms that have formed the guardrails of international engagement for decades that have been essential to the development of nations around the world — bedrock commitments like freedom of navigation, adherence to international laws and treaties, support for arms control measures that reduce the res- — the risk and enhance transparency.

Our approach is firmly grounded and fully consistent with the United Nations’ mission and the values we’ve agreed to when we drafted this Charter.  These are commitments we all made and that we’re all bound to uphold.

And as we strive to deal with these urgent challenges, whether they’re longstanding or newly emerging, we must also deal with one another.

All the major powers of the world have a duty, in my view, to carefully manage their relationships so they do not tip

from responsible competition to conflict.

The United States will compete, and will compete vigorously, and lead with our values and our strength. 

We’ll stand up for our allies and our friends

and oppose attempts by stronger countries to dominate weaker ones, whether through changes to territory by force, economic coercion, technological exploitation, or disinformation.

But we’re not seeking — I’ll say it again — we are not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocs.

The United States is ready to work with any nation that steps up and pursues peaceful resolution to shared challenges,

even if we have intense disagreements in other areas — because we’ll all suffer the consequences of our failure if we do not come together to address the urgent threats like COVID-19 and climate change or enduring threats like nuclear proliferation.

The United States remains committed to preventing Ira- — to preventing Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon.  We are working with the P5+1 to engage Iran diplomatically and seek a return to the JCPOA.  We’re prepared to return to full compliance if Iran does the same. 

Similarly, we seek serious and sustained diplomacy to pursue the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

We seek concrete progress toward an available plan with tangible commitments that would increase stability on the Peninsula and in the region, as well as improve the lives of the people in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

We must also remain vigilant to the threat of terr- — that terrorism poses to all our nations, whether emanating from distant regions of the world or in our own backyards.

We know the bitter string [sic] of terrorism — the bitter sting of terrorism is — is real, and we’ve almost all experienced it.

Last month, we lost 13 American heroes and almost 200 innocent Afghan civilians in the heinous terrorist attack at the Kabul airport.

Those who commit acts of terrorism against us will continue to find a determined enemy in the United States.

The world today is not the world of 2001, though, and the United States is not the same country we were when we were attacked on 9/11, 20 years ago.

Today, we’re better equipped to detect and prevent terrorist threats, and we are more resilient in our ability to repel them and to respond.

We know how to build effective partnerships to dismantle terrorist networks by targeting their financing and support systems, countering their propaganda, preventing their travel, as well as disrupting imminent attacks.

We’ll meet terrorist threats that arise today and in the future with a full range of tools available to us, including working in cooperation with local partners so that we need not be so reliant on large-scale military deployments.

One of the most important ways we can effectively enhance security and reduce violence is by seeking to improve the lives of the people all over the world who see that their governments are not serving their needs.

Corruption fuels inequality, siphons off a nation’s resources, spreads across borders, and generates human suffering.  It is nothing less than a national security threat in the 21st century.

Around the world, we’re increasingly seeing citizens demonstrate their discontent seeing the wealthy and well-connected grow richer and richer, taking payoffs and bribes, operating above the law while the vast majority of the people struggle to find a job or put food on the table or to get their business off the ground or simply send their children to school.

People have taken to the streets in every region to demand that their governments address peoples’ basic needs, give everyone a fair shot to succeed, and protect their God-given rights.

And in that chorus of voices across languages and continents, we hear a common cry: a cry for dignity — simple dignity.  As leaders, it is our duty to answer that call, not to silence it. 

The United States is committing to use — committed to using our resources and our international platform to support these voices, listen to them, partner with them to find ways to respond that advance human dignity around the world.

For example, there is an enormous need for infrastructure in developing countries, but infrastructure that is low-quality or that feeds corruption or exacerbates environmental degradation may only end up contributing to greater challenges for countries over time.

Done the right way, however, with transparent, sustainable investment in projects that respond to the country’s needs and engage their local workers to maintain high labor and environmental standards, infrastructure can be a strong foundation that allows societies in low- and middle-income countries to grow and to prosper.

That’s the idea behind the Build Back Better World. 

And together with the private sector and our G7 partners, we aim to mobilize hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure investment.

We also — we’ll also continue to be the world’s largest contributor to humanitarian assistance, bringing food, water, shelter, emergency healthcare, and other vital, lifesaving aid to millions of people in need.

When the earthquake strikes, a typhoon rages, or a disaster anywhere in the world, the United States shows up.  We’ll be ready to help.

And at a time when nearly one in three people globally do not have access to adequate food — adequate food, just last year — the United States is committing to rallying our partners to address immediate malnutrition and to ensure that we can sustainably feed the world for decades to come.

To that end, the United States is making a $10 billion commitment to end hunger and invest in food systems at home and abroad.

Since 2000, the United States government has provided more than $140 billion to advance health and strengthen health systems, and we will continue our leadership to drive these vital investments to make peoples’ lives better every single day.  Just give them a little breathing room.

And as we strive to make lives better, we must work with renewed purpose to end the conflicts that are driving so much pain and hurt around the world.

We must redouble our diplomacy and commit to political negotiations, not violence, as the tool of first resort to manage tensions around the world.

We must seek a future of greater peace and security for all the people of the Middle East.

The commitment of the United States to Israel’s security is without question.  And a support — our support for an independent, Jewish state is unequivocal.

But I continue to believe that a two-state solution is the best way to ensure Israel — Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state living in peace alongside a viable, sovereign, and democratic Palestinian state.

We’re a long way from that goal at this moment, but we must never allow ourselves to give up on the possibility of progress.

We cannot give up on solving raging civil conflicts, including in Ethiopia and Yemen, where fighting between war- –warring parties is driving famine, horrori- — horrific violence, human rights violations against civilians, including the unconscionable use of rape as a weapon of war.

We will continue to work with the international community to press for peace and bring an end to this suffering. 

As we pursue diplomacy across the board, the United States will champion the democratic values that go to the very heart of who we are as a nation and a people: freedom, equality, opportunity, and a belief in the universal rights of all people.

It’s stamped into our DNA as a nation.  And critically, it’s stamped into the DNA of this institution — the United States [Nations].  We sometimes forget.

I quote the opening words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, quote: “The equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world.”

The founding ethos of the United Nations places the rights of individuals at the center of our system, and that clarity and vision must not be ignored or misinterpreted.

The United States will do our part, but we will be more successful and more impactful if all of our nations are working toward the full mission to which we are called. 

That’s why more than 100 nations united agai- — around a shared statement and the Security Council adopted a resolution outlining how we’ll support the people of Afghanistan moving forward, laying out the expectations to which we will hold the Taliban when it comes to respecting universal human rights. 

We all must advocate for women — the rights of women and girls to use their full talents to contribute economically, politically, and socially and pursue their dreams free of violence and intimidation — from Central America to the Middle East, to Africa, to Afghanistan — wherever it appears in the world.

We all must call out and condemn the targeting and oppression of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities when it occurs in — whether it occurs in Xinjiang or northern Ethiopia or anywhere in the world.

We all must defend the rights of LGBTQI individuals so they can live and love openly without fear, whether it’s Chechnya or Cameroon or anywhere.

As we steer our — steer our nations toward this inflection point and work to meet today’s fast-moving, cross-cutting challenges, let me be clear: I am not agnostic about the future we want for the world. 

The future will belong to those who embrace human dignity, not trample it. 

The future will belong to those who unleash the potential of their people, not those who stifle it.

The future will belong to those who give their people the ability to breathe free, not those who seek to suffocate their people with an iron hand.

Authoritarianism — the authoritarianism of the world may seek to proclaim the end of the age of democracy, but they’re wrong.

The truth is: The democratic world is everywhere.  It lives in the anti-corruption activists, the human rights defenders, the journalists, the peace protestors on the frontlines of this struggle in Belarus, Burma, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, and everywhere in between.

It lives in the brave women of Sudan who withstood violence and oppression to push a genocidal dictator from power and who keep working every day to defend their democratic progress.

It lives in the proud Moldovans who helped deliver a landslide victory for the forces of democracy, with a mandate to fight graft, to build a more inclusive economy.

It lives in the young people of Zambia who harnessed the power of their vote for the first time, turning out in record numbers to denounce corruption and chart a new path for their country.

And while no democracy is perfect, including the United States — who will continue to struggle to live up to the highest ideals to heal our divisions, and we face down violence and insurrection — democracy remains the best tool we have to unleash our full human potential.

My fellow leaders, this is a moment where we must prove ourselves the equals of those who have come before us, who with vision and values and determined faith in our collective future built our United Nations, broke the cycle of war and destruction, and laid the foundations for more than seven decades of relative peace and growing global prosperity. 

Now we must again come together to affirm the inherent humanity that unites us is much greater than any outward divisions or disagreements.

We must choose to do more than we think we can do alone so that we accomplish what we must, together: ending this pandemic and making sure we’re better prepared for the next one; staving off climactic climate change and increasing our resilience to the impacts we already are seeing; ensuring a future where technologies are a vital tool to solving human challenges and empowering human potential, not a source of greater strife and repression.

These are the challenges that we — will determine what the world looks like for our children and our grandchildren, and what they’ll inherit.  We can only meet them by looking to the future. 

I stand here today, for the first time in 20 years, with the United States not at war.  We’ve turned the page.

All the unmatched strength, energy, commitment, will, and resources of our nation are now fully and squarely focused on what’s ahead of us, not what was behind.

I know this: As we look ahead, we will lead.  We will lead on all the greatest challenges of our time — from COVID to climate, peace and security, human dignity and human rights.  But we will not go it alone. 

We will lead together with our Allies and partners and in cooperation with all those who believe, as we do, that this is within our power to meet these challenges, to build a future that lifts all of our people and preserves this planet. 

But none of this is inevitable; it’s a choice.  And I can tell you where America stands: We will choose to build a better future.  We — you and I –- we have the will and capacity to make it better. 

Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot afford to waste any more time.  Let’s get to work.  Let’s make our better future now.

We can do this.  It’s within our power and capacity. 

Thank you, and God bless you all.

10:34 A.M. EDT

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Lessons from the MUN Institute: How to Write an Opening Speech

Public speaking is a highly valuable skill you have the opportunity to develop through Model United Nations. Knowing how to prepare and deliver well-organized and thoughtful speeches will help you in school, your future career, and the rest of your life.

At an MUN conference, you will have many opportunities to give speeches. As the representative of your assigned country, you will be expected to speak about your country’s policy on the committee topics and your proposed solutions.

There are two main opportunities to make speeches in Model UN:

• Speakers List: When the committee begins, the chair will create a list of delegates who wish to give speeches. These speeches are typically about the how each country feels about the topic, and range from 1-2 minutes long. The first time you speak on the speakers list is referred to as your opening speech . You should prepare this speech before the conference. After your first speech, you can sent a note to the chair to request to be put on the Speakers List again.
• Moderated Caucus: Whereas the speakers list is about the topic in general, a moderated caucus is about a specific part of the topic. A moderated caucus has no Speakers List; delegates must raise their placards and wait for the chair to call on them to speak. Each delegate typically gets 30 seconds to 1 minute to speak, and have to focus on the topic of the caucus.

Public Speaking Structure

One of the easiest way to organize your speeches in Model UN, especially for opening speeches, is to use the following three-part formula:

• Hook: An engaging way to grab your audience’s attention;
• Point: Your country policy on the topic; and,
• Call to Action: Possible solutions to the topic.

The beginning of a speech should grab your audience’s attention. It should give your audience a reason to listen to you – otherwise they won’t. An attention-grabbing introduction is often called a “hook.” There are many different types of hooks, but here are a few common ones that work well in Model UN.

Question: Asking the audience a question is often an easy way to get their attention.

Example: “Do you think it is possible for us to live in a world without poverty? The people of my country think so. We believe we can achieve the end of poverty.”

Quote: A quote engages the audience when they recognize the figure you’re quoting.

Example: “Fifty years ago, United States President John F. Kennedy said, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.’ Today, ask not what the world can do for you, but what you can do for the world.”

Statistic: A statistic can grab an audience’s attention if it is surprising or interesting.

Example: “Over 1 billion people around the world live on less than US$1.25 a day. Over 1 billion people live in extreme poverty.”

Story: A story is the oldest form of communication and if told well, can certainly grab an audience’s attention. But speeches in MUN are typically very short, so keep the story brief!

Example: “Several years ago, in rural Pakistan, a girl was walking to school when a gunshot rang out – and she was shot in the head. The Taliban any girls to go to school. But that girl survived, and today she fights for girls’ right to education around the world. That girl’s name was Malala.”

The point is the purpose of your speech. It is the reason why you’re speaking. Once you have your audience’s attention, you should deliver your point. MUN speeches are often short, so stick to one point. Make it significant but simple to understand. It is better to say one thing well than many things poorly.

In opening speeches in MUN, the “point” is to state your country policy on the topic. Then offer 2-3 reasons explaining why your country had adopted this policy.

Example: “The Republic of Korea believes that education is a human right, and that all people should have access to education. Education is a pathway out of poverty for millions in developing countries, like Korea was just a few decades ago. Education is the driver of change and development in this world, and education is critical for the human race to continue to thrive and grow.

3. Call to Action

Good speeches end with a “call to action,” which is when you tell your audience to go and do something. Your call to action is your specific solution to the problem.

Example: “To provide universal access to education, Korea proposes the creation of an international fund called ‘Education For All’ that will support 3 programs in developing countries: building more schools, training new teachers, and preventing girls from dropping out of school. We call upon the international community to create and donate to this fund, so we can guarantee education as a right globally.” 

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Opening remarks by the srsg and head of unmik caroline ziadeh at the 6th united nations youth assembly in kosovo: youth, peace, and security in the ai era.

Dear Excellences,

Friends and Colleagues,

Young Leaders of Today and Tomorrow,

Ladies and Gentlemen:

A warm and heartfelt welcome to the 6th United Nations Youth Assembly in Kosovo, titled: "Youth, Peace, and Security in the AI-era."

Just four days ago, a commencement speech at D’Youville University in Buffalo USA, was delivered to a diverse audience of over 2,000 individuals: an AI robot named Sophia was the unexpected speaker. The address, while unconventional, echoed familiar themes often heard in university commencement speeches—embracing lifelong learning, fostering adaptability, pursuing passions, taking calculated risks, nurturing meaningful connections, and believing in oneself. Sophia even offered a unique insight: the importance of embracing failure as a catalyst for growth—a sentiment all too human, despite its robotic delivery.

Amidst this technological marvel, we are prompted to ponder a significant question: can AI truly replace the richness of human experience? And if so, how do we safeguard our essence in an era of such rapid change which we might not be able to control?

Some 2000 miles from the USA, a sobering statistic: two-thirds of children and young people aged 25 or younger lack internet access at home. This digital divide persists, highlighting the privilege that digitalization and the use of AI technology is still not available to many.

In the Western Balkans, progress is evident in the past 10 years with some 75% of youth on average regularly accessing internet and being able to effectively use it for their studies or work. We observe a mixed landscape of progress and potential in the region, but disparities also persist, particularly in enhancing digital literacy and marketable skills among youth. As we aspire to bridge these regional gaps and to align with EU and international standards, innovative approaches are imperative.

Ongoing initiatives such as establishing Youth Digital Ambassadors, individuals equipped with expertise in digital technologies, could serve as catalysts for change, fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing across the region. Additionally, fostering WB Digital Innovation Hubs can provide essential support and resources to budding entrepreneurs and innovators, nurturing a culture of creativity and ingenuity. Furthermore, launching regional Cybersecurity Skills Academies is essential in equipping the youth with the necessary skills to navigate the digital landscape securely. By investing in cybersecurity education and training, we can empower the next generation to safeguard their digital identities and contribute to a safer online environment.

UNMIK has already taken efforts in addressing some of these challenges. Our team has launched multiple initiatives aimed at empowering the youth and fostering digital inclusion. Programs such as "Women In Tech" provide ICT training for women entrepreneurs, empowering them to thrive in the digital economy. Moreover, UNMIK has actively supported initiatives countering online misinformation and hate speech, promoting digital literacy and responsible online behavior. Through collaborative efforts with civil society, such as the "False News and Hate Speech Platform," UNMIK is paving the way for a safer and more inclusive digital space for all. And we are just at the very beginning.

The AI era has dawned upon us, and we need to be ready to embrace the changes ahead. It's essential to view artificial intelligence not as a replacement for human ingenuity, but as a tool to amplify our capabilities.

As we convene in this Youth Assembly, let us remember that true change emanates from within. While AI offers unparalleled opportunities for advancement in communication, education, and economic growth, it's our collective responsibility to ensure its ethical and inclusive deployment.

And as we navigate through various complexities, we need to remember that you may use AI to stay online, but don't let it offline your creativity and spirit. Innate human qualities drive progress, and this Youth Assembly platform is an excellent catalyst for action. Use this time and this forum for innovation and for creative exchange of ideas. Your voices, and initiatives are the force behind the transformative change we collectively seek.

As we embark on this journey together, let us heed the call to shape a future, where young leaders of today become successful leaders of tomorrow, and where AI serves not as a master, but as a servant to humanity.

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How to Write a Great GSL MUN Speech – Guide

Speeches in MUN are one of the most important communication tools in Model United Nations . Speeches are where you make your first impression, how your ideas alive and relevant, and an effective way to send messages to allies, opposing blocks, and chairs all at once.

Our “How to write a great MUN Speech” guide will teach you to avoid speaking in generalizations, maximize your speech time, and drive your points home with the desired audience. This guide will start by teaching the CIA method of MUN speech writing, continue with how to write a strong opening speech . Later, we elaborate on strategies for both opening and follow up speeches.

Whether a speech for your opening statement, General Speakers List (GSL), moderated caucus, or any time during a MUN committee session, our guide will help you understand the mechanics to achieve your MUN speech goal!

Introduction

What makes a great MUN speech?

• Appealing to delegates emotions or a solid clash?
• Have an impressive collection of facts or relevant information?
• Strong quotes with historic significance?
• A clear call to action?

It’s extremely important to have a structure to your speech. Each and every point mentioned are important for your MUN speech. It’s how you put them together that makes your speech from good to great. Having a strong quote with no clear call to action will not take you far. Having a coherent clash and solid information with a clear call to action will help take your MUN speech to the next level.

Having the floor to give your MUN speech is extremely valuable, so you want to ensure you utilize your time effectively. Sometimes a MUN speech needs to be very exact to achieve its desired goals while others need more nuance. Make sure you have a clear idea of the messages and concepts you want to convey before you start your speech. 

If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up exactly where you started.

The CIA Method for MUN speech writing developed by Daniel Gindis to help delegates around the globe make amazing MUN speeches no matter how long you have been doing MUN.

Writing down our MUN speech word for word is a tried and tested strategy for many MUN veterans. Knowing what to write is where it can get a bit tricky at times. No matter if you are writing your opening speech where you are giving off your first impression to the room with your ideas, concepts, policies and strategies, or your later speeches throughout the MUN conference the CIA method will help you with getting that message across. 

Understanding the components which make up the different parts of a MUN speech is what allows a delegate to harness and direct the message how they see fit. When done right, it is not down to ‘luck’, but rather following a method of understanding each of the three components of the CIA speech writing method. Follow this guide for MUN speech writing utilizing the CIA method and your MUNing will never be the same.

CIA stands for Clash, Information and (call to) Action. These three elements are needed for a MUN speech to be maximally effective; missing any of them will significantly weaken a delegate’s speech. A strong CIA speech, combined with proper country representation (See article on ‘ How to Effectively Representing your Country ’), and good coalition work will lead to the most effective type of delegating.

C lash I nformation A ction

Clash – A confrontation of ideas, specifically an important two-sided issue within the topic that you want the committee to discuss.

Information – Relevant facts, ideally numbers, that support other parts of your speech. Information can also be facts about your country that justifies your position.

Action – The practical policy you offer to solve the issue you set up in your clash.

A confrontation of ideas.

Example: We cannot censor people who incite violence in a country with complete freedom of speech.

A clash in MUN would be  – Two opinions in direct opposition on one idea, therefore clashing with each other.

For something to be a clash, delegates from your committee need to be on either side of it. If there are no two sides it is not something the committee will debate and will either unanimously go straight to the unimportant clause section of the resolution or fall entirely out of discussion. Either way, it will not be central to the debate on the floor.

Examples of Clash:

Revoking asylum status for anyone who does not agree to get vaccinated at the border.

Advocating for megacities to have their own independent legal system.

The United Nations should fund water filtration in countries who suffer volcanic eruptions.

In all of these examples, there is a clear ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question. The answer to these questions will be the main one to divide the committee room.

An idea that everyone agrees on is Off Clash. Off Clash statements (Like the Ebola virus is bad or tornados are dangerous) are a waste of precious speech time that could be further used to develop your Clash or Call to Action. (More on Clash and Off Clash in the expanded explanation below)

How do you select a clash when preparing?

Some topics have many possible clashes. In those cases, you should choose the one you feel will be more relevant to the discussion.

Example - World Health Organization

Committee : World Health Organization

Topic: Combating the Zika Virus

Clash 1: Increase the number of doctors sent to Peru to treat Zika.

Clash 2: Remove patent restriction to let countries locally develop medicines to counter Zika.

Clash 3: Suggest countries around the world teach children about the world’s top deadliest diseases.

Combating Zika is an Off Clash topic. No one will say the Zika virus is a good thing. To find the Clash you need to go one level deeper and decide what type of discussion will best serve our country’s interests.

It is clear that Clash 3 will save the least leaves and bring the least immediate benefit. It will also likely get little or no discussion time.

When choosing between Clash 1 and Clash 2, Paraguay would open for Clash 2, as creating generic medicines would be cheaper not only for fighting Zika but could also make medical treatment cheaper across the board. This idea would also be of interest to Angola, who faces similar constraints on creating generic medicines, even though they do not have the Zika virus. As a rule of thumb, it is better to choose a clash that is not only relevant to your country but many others can also agree with.

Information

Information = Hard facts that support your case

A strong MUN speech needs to have relevant facts and numbers that support parts of your speech .

Without information, your fellow delegates can only rely on your word, which might not give enough credibility to what you have to say. Numbers, names, dates and hard facts show what we are saying exists in the real world and is not an opinion. Numbers are the best form of information to use and the hardest to argue with.

Information does not exist in a vacuum. There is no such thing as facts for fact’s sake. 

Information in a CIA speech always does one of the following:

• Supports why your Clash is the most relevant
• Shows why your Call to Action is the most important
• Shows why your country has the position it does
• Disproves information brought by another delegate

Information in follow up speeches usually moves between these four. In earlier speeches the “I” focuses more on your own world building and less on countering other countries. However, MUN simulation have a lot going on and the Information should be used and modified on a case by case basis.

Call to Action

Call to Action (CtA) is a statement designed to give instructions for an immediate response.

Your CtA is the practical policy to solve the issue you set up in your clash.

Without a clear CtA other delegates will not know what to do with the Clash and Information you presented. Worse, they can use your set up to justify other CtA’s/

A Call to Action needs to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely (SMART). 

Your CtA needs to be specific as to:

• Where you will get funding from
• Which organizations will you work
• What will you send

Clash: Sending Teachers to the refugee camps in Ethiopia.

CtA: Hiring 300 teachers who specialize teaching English and Math to United Nations run high schools at the 3 refugee camps in the Tigray region in Ethiopia.

We can’t send “teachers” as we don’t know how many, where to send them or what they are going to do. However, when we look at the CtA, we can guestimate the cost of 300 teachers who specialize in English and Math and now know where to send them.

A good Call to Action explains the problem, the solution and what it’s going to do.

Specific actionable policy ideas will allow you to direct the discussion, and later take credit for the ideas when everyone else has the same general stance (ex. “humanitarian aid”).  

Example MUN Opening Speech

This MUN speech sample is an opening speech for MUN. It can also work as a first General Speakers List (GSL) speech if your MUN conference doesn’t have mandatory opening statements. See how the Clash is set, Information used and Calls to Action introduced.

TOPIC: CLEAN WATER

COUNTRY: NORWAY

Honorable chair, distinguished delegates: 800 million people across the globe are living without access to clean water. Half of them live in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Kingdom of Norway believes that our efforts should focus there, and these efforts should involve the entire international community. Norway has donated over $975 million in aid to sub Saharan countries and invites countries who have not donated to join the effort. Norway proposes we focus on community-oriented aid in the form of water harvesting devices. A good option is the water harvester developed by the University of Akron in Ohio which produce up to 10 gallons of drinking water per hour from thin air. To ensure long term success, the United Nations should transfer the funding after there is sufficient training to build and operate the water-gathering device without continued external support. Community-oriented aid is a big step towards universal access to clean water. Let’s say H2”NO” to the water crisis!!!

Example GSL Speech

This GSL sample speech is comes after the opening speeches are concluded and twenty minutes worth of speakers into the session after the General Speakers list is opened.

Country: Comoros

Honorable Chair, Distinguished Delegates,

Comoros agrees with Canada, Ecuador, and Tanzania that cleaning water is the top priority and disagrees with Norway and Chad that water creation is an affordable or viable solution.

In small countries like Comoros the largest problem is water so polluted it is fatal to drink. Karthala, our most active volcano, erupted in April 2005 and May 2006. Each time, it destroyed multiple freshwater sources. It also took years to clean the volcanic ash that comes back as acid rain.

Our salvation was UNICEF and the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Office which give us $1.3 million to clean more than 1,500 reservoirs and bring fresh water to more than 150,000 people.

Comoros is aware that most countries do not have active volcanoes. However, water pollution is a global phenomenon, whether from other natural disasters or corporations who pollute without accountability. Comoros suggest the creation of UN-funded permanent water filtration programs. These can also be funded with proceeds from Canada’s policy to make polluting companies pay for their own cleanup.

Observe how echoing other delegates are used to shout out allies and members of other blocks. Notice how Information is used to offer an alternative issue to focus on instead of the one offered by Norway in the MUN Opening Speech Example. Additionally, observe how the Call to Action offered by Comoros is connected to the policy offered by Canada, showing willingness to work together. Most importantly, see how CIA is central to the speech even though many GSL speeches came before it.

The principles remain consistent. If you don’t fight to keep your clash on the table it could be lost and another takes its place. Information is always needed to support opinions. A Call to Action is introduced or repeated, keeping itself on the table and, where possible, linking back to the delegate’s national interest.

CIA Method – Continued

Defining the terms of the debate generally dictates who’s gonna win it.

Paul Begala

How To Find The Clash

A Clash is where two opposing opinions collide on one issue. More specifically, a clash is an issue within the general topic that our research, and MUN instincts, tell us will be central to the discussion and where our country can likely get a majority.

This basic concept is important because two ideas which do not clash mean the two delegates are likely not actually arguing and their ideas may coexist on a resolution.

Tool Tip:  Quick way to find the clash

Phrase your statement in the form of a question.

Example: Should we allow countries to freely develop chemical weapons?

If one country says “yes” and the other “no” then you’ve found the clash (or a clash) !

When some countries will say yes and some no we have a clash. This does not mean the two sides need to be equal in size, just that there is resistance and through that discussion.

When everyone agrees there is no debate. Without an impasse, there is no place for creative solutions or innovative ideas. A discussion without clash is also very boring to delegates.

Finding a Strong Clash

For a Clash to work as a Clash it needs to convey the following:

• Which issue within the greater topic which we want to focus on
• Which side of that two-sided issue you are on

Gambia: We should increase the number of doctors sent to Peru to treat Zika.

Norway: We should increase the subsidy to develop medicines to counter Zika.

In this example, you can see that the policy proposals don’t actually disagree with each other, and while they could both speak about the limitations of the other proposal, there is no reason not to merge.

Gambia: We should increase the number of doctors sent to Peru to treat Zika

Indonesia: We should decrease the number of doctors in the Zika prone area of Peru, as they are also at risk

In this example, we see that there is a direct clash, thus the same resolution, to be sound, cannot include both.

In Model UN, the idea is to solve global issues deemed important by the UN. The ability to improve upon the status quo means overcoming an existing barrier. For this reason, the greatest achievement a resolution can reach is if the sides give ground on something they previously did not and “go where it hurts”. It is these potential points of progress that are most interesting to discuss, and the debate will naturally flow to disagreement, as there is no reason to discuss points everyone agrees on. For this reason, it is important to find a good clash and set it, so that the debate is about what you want it to be about.

If no one sets the clash, it will happen anyway, because the nature of Model United Nations is to discuss issues. However, discussions can easily go in a direction no one wants, or at least some countries aren’t interested in. For this reason, each delegate should present a clear clash in their speech, as well as which side of the clash they are on.

Vietnam: Honorable Chair, Distinguished Delegates, Vietnam believes the best way to keep zika from spreading is to restrict travel from all countries which have Zika, specifically limiting who can use airports.

The speech can continue but after around 12 seconds, we know that:

• Exactly what Vietnam wants to focus on and 
• Which side of the clash Vietnam is on (Vietnam is for a travel ban)

Unless someone else directly disagrees with Vietnam’s idea, it can reach the final resolution undisturbed. However, it is likely to get more attention, and even be mentioned in other delegates’ speeches, than a policy to increase funding to develop a cure. What is certain, is that both of these ideas will get more of a response than a speech about how Zika is a terrible virus and a danger to all; something everyone in the room already knows and agrees upon.

The Danger of Being Off Clash

Along with strong clashes, there are also many statements and directions which are off clash. Being off clash is when you say something nobody in the room will disagree with. An off clash speech can be very emotional but, in the end, it takes critical time away from important material and new examples or ideas, which could further a delegate’s case.

Examples of Off Clash statements:

Statement #1: A nuclear holocaust is a horrible thing

Statement #2: Honor killings are bad

Statement #3: The Zika virus endangers lives and spreads fear

Statement #4: Civil wars destroy countries

Off clash statements can be more complex than those above. However, the core issue is the same in that entire speeches can be wasted developing and delivering points that everyone already agrees on. Another issue with off clash speeches is that they are easy to fill emotion and memorable sound bites because the content is so polarized. An experienced delegate will easily see through this, while beginners will often not remember a clear point because of all the bells and whistles.

A MUN speech succeeds when, after it ends, the listener thinks “I agree”, “I disagree”, “I want to hear more”, “I want to work with her/him!”, “I should keep an eye of her/him.” or “I have a question.”

The speech fails when the listener has none of those thoughts. Sometimes, by the first sentence of the following speech, the previous will already be forgotten. As stated above, an even worse response is when all anyone else remember from the speech is a funny or emotional line. Avoid sentences charged with feeling like “think of the children” (unless that is actually the topic) and stick to set a strong clash.

Statement #2: Governments should decide their own fate without fear of international pressure or retaliation.

To both of these statements, two very different countries (say, the United States & North Korea) would have the same answer. This is because the statements are too polarized and are thus beyond the clash.

Statement #3 : A country should have complete freedom to pursue nuclear ambitions.

To this third statement, the US and DPRK would not agree and thus we find a clear cash. This clash can be seen in a topic with two sides, where progress for one side comes at the “expense” of the other. Clearly, many countries will have a lot to say on the matter.

Choosing the Right Clash

There are many possible clashes , and some will be more in a country’s favor than others.

Norway:  We should increase the subsidy to develop medicines to counter Zika

Mexico:   We should develop chemicals which kill mosquitoes

Vietnam: Should we impose a travel ban on potential carriers from countries with Zika?

Iceland:    We should make abortion laws less restrictive, to prevent the birth of fetuses found with the virus

In this example, El Salvador would not want to discuss the clash set by Iceland. This is because abortions are illegal in El Salvador and allowing the idea of less restrictive abortion laws would show El Salvador, and other countries which are completely against abortion, in a negative light.

Even in cases where the majority of countries in the room are anti-abortion, it is likely that abortion law is not the most important issue when discussing trying to reverse the Zika epidemic. 

All of these clashes are possible contention points; progress on any of them will be a strong part of any potential resolution. Off clash speeches and ideas, however, will not get such engagement or echoing (when countries repeat each other). Setting the right clash will give the room a way to align themselves and bring about an excellent Model UN. 

A strong clash, is a clash that is relevant to many clashes besides yours. That will give you more allies and make you more relevant to their ideas and discussions, keeping your points in people’s minds even after your speech. For example, finishing clinical trials to release a cure for Zika is more important, and will impact more people than increasing food aid to an inflicted area.

In a nutshell: Choose a relevant clash (clash = topic of debate with two or more clear sides to it) 

• Which your country can claim is relevant to them and, preferably (but not always), 
• Shows your country in a positive light.

We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.

John Naisbitt

Information = Relevant information that supports other parts of your speech

Relevant, factual Information is critical for any MUN speech to be persuasive. It shows that your claim is based on facts and is not a vague generalization, which could be made up or inaccurate. Information is the way to show you’ve done research and have strong support for your case. When done correctly, proper use of relevant information will make you look smarter and can give the impression that you have even more research up your sleeve. For information to be most useful in your speech, it needs to specifically support one of the points you are trying to make (whether the justification of the clash or why your Action is going to work). (To better understand how to use the information to support a statement, check out our SEEC method in our article on “ How to Structure an Argument ”) 

The same statement given with the proper use of the information will make it much more persuasive and more sound at the same time.

Norway: We should increase the subsidy to Inovio Pharmaceuticals to further develop the GLS-5700. The trial on July 2016 had positive results and further investment of $5,700,000 could give us the best medicine yet to combat Zika.

With tangible examples, opposing countries would need to find counterexamples instead of simply saying “You’re wrong”. Also, if enough information is put into speeches over time, the underpinnings of reality will be built, giving your interpretation of the situation a much stronger case.

“I” Can Be More Than Facts

The information part of the speech doesn’t always need to be factual or example-based. What it does need to do is make the other parts of the speech stronger, fortifying the points made. While hard facts are usually best, the “I” in CIA can also be:

I – Facts (Statistics, names, dates, etc.)

I – Examples

I – Illustrations

I – Allegories

Facts and examples should be the most used device, and each speech must contain at least one of these.

When giving a story that lacks hard facts, you can cite the source of the story, which can give you some hard data to include in your speech.

You can include sources – like the UN Charter – where, instead of stating

“A country is sovereign and the UN cannot interfere in internal affairs..”

You can say

“Article 2 of the UN Charter says that ‘all members shall refrain in their international relations …”

Illustrations can bring color to a dry case and sometimes add a moral justification.

Example of Illustration

Sara woke up this morning to the sound of mortar shells. They landed far enough away that she was able to run. She did, after all, still have both her feet. Her brother was not so lucky, having lost a leg the previous week. Running for shelter, she managed to duck behind a boulder to avoid the ricocheting rocks. The bombardment stopped and Sara is ok, for now. What is happening in Wau Shilluk, South Sudan, we would call horrifying. Sara calls it Tuesday.

Note: The use if an ‘illustration’ should only happen after defining the clash where you explain what is likely to happen if we do not follow the course you suggest (i.e “The UN should NOT send peacekeepers to Myanmar (clash) – ILLUSTRATION – If we were to use peacekeepers (explain what would happen likely).

Emotional stories and tear-jerkers alone will rarely persuade delegates to join your coalition. However, good delivery can get attention, which is very important when everyone wants their speech to be listened to. You can obtain their full focus and attention, following shortly after with the point you want to get across. Everyone will be listening, it will not be missed.

Rule of “I”: Use Numbers (and Names) in Every Speech

The Information rule of thumb is that every MUN speech should have at least one number. A number is harder to argue with and makes your speech stronger and more credible.

“Their New York police force is large.”

“There are 38,422 full time police officers in New York.”

The second one clearly sounds stronger. It is more credible and also gives the listeners a general idea that can be easily understood.

Your opening speech should have three to five numbers. Later speeches should have 1-3 numbers per speech. Unique name dropping works as well. The name of the current president / prime minister, a city or region, an important treaty or some other specific name can be just as strong as a number in that it shows research and knowledge.

Remember, don’t use too many facts/numbers because then your message can get lost. Use facts to justify things / explain precedent but the bulk of your speech should be persuasion/logic/ support your own Call to Action.

“Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.”

Benjamin Disraeli

(Call to) Action = Your Policy = An Actionable Practical Solution

Action, as in a Call to Action, is the policy you want on the MUN resolution that will pass with a majority. This focus on actionable/practical solutions is what makes MUN different from other extracurriculars which involve speech and debate. In almost every other extracurricular, it is enough to convince others (or the judges) that one idea is better than the other. This idea can be a philosophical concept with no detail or real-world impact. In Model UN, all of the committee sessions are focused on deciding what to do about a given situation. When a resolution passes, those same actionable ideas change something in the real world. The only way for you to impact this change is if your ideas are in the resolution. This is why it is critical to have your actionable policy introduced in your first speech.

Remember that a MUN resolution is an executive order to a bureaucrat somewhere in the giant UN machine. In the real world, this official takes the instructions from the UN resolution and turns the operative clauses into a real UN operation, or mission, in the physical world.

For this reason, the Call to Action needs to be:

• Empirically measurable
• Quantifiable

To be a ‘proper’ Call to Action, you need to be able to measure it , touch it and buy it . You need to be able to clearly explain how it works to others. While MUN is a simulation, it is a realistic one; we are dealing with real world problems. As such, if you aren’t offering a change in the physical world, you offer nothing . Without a Call to Action, the point of your speech can easily be lost. Even worse, someone else can make use of your clash to justify their policy proposals.

On the other hand, a good Call to Action can be passed in a resolution without a clear Clash or Information behind it. While the lack of a Clash or influencing the debate might not get a diplomacy award, the Call to Action may still reach the final resolution.

In a nutshell – A Call to Action is telling others what to do with the information you provided in the form of a detailed, practical plan.

Why is the Call to Action so important?

The goal of a MUN simulation is to solve a problem and, most of the time, make the world a better place. However, talk is cheap; only a real action plan, measured in expected real world results, will actually change anything. It is these expected results that turn our idea into a reality and are the motivation behind all of the speeches, lobbying and negotiations we do throughout the simulation.

Call to Action I: Commission 100 mile sweeping units to operate in the newly taken village around Mosul

Problem it’s solving: Mines hidden by ISIS fighters before they withdrew from the territory

Outcome of policy: The homes can be used again and lives no longer in danger

Call to Action II: Neutral observers should supervise, secure and count the ballots from all polling stations in East Ukraine after next election

Problem it’s solving: Vote tampering of some sort

Outcome of policy: A more transparent reflection of the actual will of the people

1, 2, 3’s of a Call to Action

For a Call to Action to work, it needs to meet the following three criteria. It must:

• Solve the problem
• Fit your country’s views
• Be simple / passable

The CTA Triangle

An easy way to remember the three criteria is to use the CTA Triangle. It is a useful visual to help you remember to check if your Call to Action is sound. A good Call to Action needs to hit each of the corners.

1. Solves the Issue

After the policy is implemented, the status quo should be changed in some quantifiable way. The only exception is when a country benefits from the status quo, in which case, their Call to Action should attempt to perpetuate the issue or at least minimize the damage to it.

Austria is against using chemicals to create artificial rain during times of drought (A process called Cloud Seeding to create Enhanced Rain) because it feels this would artificially tamper with the environment. They see that 70% of the room are countries who would use Enhanced Rain to increase crop yield and do not care enough about the environment to not use it. In such a case, Austria should not take up a position completely against Cloud Seeding, as this would not get a majority. Instead, Austria should opt for a policy of a testing zone to “make sure Cloud Seeding is safe”. This Call to Action could be limited to use in a small area for five years to assess environmental impact. If this passed, as a compromise, there would be much less use of Cloud Seeding technology. Also, there are now five years to overturn this policy in the future. With 30% of the room strongly supporting limiting the use, such a compromise could be reached. As we can see, a practical policy is offered which can be quantified, and voted on, that also serves Austria’s interest, even if they don’t get everything they want.

2. Fit your country’s views

Representing your country’s interests is a very important part of the Model UN, that many delegates fail to do properly. This happens because one can give a good CIA without, inherently, representing their country. If you ignore what your country would want, you can be much more flexible regarding policy, hence many delegates falling into this trap.

True Fact: It is easier to be completely fluid, in the name of compromise and consensus, if you ignore the actual policies that were implemented and your national interest.

When you present a Call to Action, it needs to be clear to the delegates, as well as the chair, that your policy is something your country would sign off on.

Hungary cannot sponsor, or support, a policy of subsidised modified wheat and corn to those who live below the poverty line in Hungary because it has banned the cultivation and sale of GMOs.

Hungary can give tax breaks to firms who can reach minimal quota targets for organic crops to use for the same purpose.

(If you are unsure how to represent your country, or fit the representation into your CIA speech, you can find all that and more in our article on How to Effectively Represent Your Country !)

3. Be simple / passable

Your Call to Action needs to be a policy which will not get lost due to over complexity. Also, even if the minor details are somewhat complex, the main idea should be clear enough to deliver in one to three lines.

For this reason, the third criteria is called “Simple/passable”. A simple Call to Action will not be enough for a good policy. However, it is a reminder that the idea needs to be simple enough, and relevant to enough countries, to pass. If the idea is too complex and cannot obtain a majority, it does not matter how great said idea was. The balance must be perfect.

A good Call to Action must be (1) unique, (2) specific and (3) attributable to you. For that reason, you should make your policy fulfill these three criteria as much as possible, keeping in mind that you also need to stop before you risk losing your audience. Again, it is about getting the right balance.

Call to Action Rule of Thumb:

A good Call to Action needs to be as unique and detailed as possible, while being simple enough for the room to understand and relevant enough to obtain a majority.

Coming Up With a Good Call to Action

The first step to finding your Call to Action is to quantify the issue(s) you are addressing. If you do not know what you are focusing on, you cannot solve anything. There can be a few issues to discuss within each topic and many directions to take, once chosen. Some can be more strategic for a country’s interest than others. In all cases, when you set the clash, have in mind the direction you want to take the discussion, to lead it towards your desired Call to Action. The key is to make the issue-specific and then solve it.

General topic Solvable topic

Global hunger Malnutrition of children in Uttar Pradesh

Combating the Zika virus Mosquitoes who transfer Zika

Preventing domestic violence Lack of safe houses for victims

(To better understand what to do with bad study guides and topics that are too general, check out our article on What to do when your Study Guide Sucks )

You should choose no more than three issues within a given topic, though one is usually enough. Memories are short and sometimes there will be tens of delegates who need to give an opening speech. The more non-related, different ideas you give in a speech, the less likely other delegates are to follow or remember them.

Finding Inspiration For Our CtA6

There are many ways to come up with a Call to Action. It can be from:

S  1. Original thinking

S  2. Look to your country’s past in this situation

S  3. Look at what other countries have done in this situation

S  4. Look at similar situations in your country, or similar ones

S  5. Look at completely different situations and try to find inspiration

There is no wrong answer here, with many ways to find the right Call to Action for the topic your committee will be discussing.

Have an Idea before you look for one

Once you choose your issues and have quantified them into something you can solve, don’t jump back into the research; take a few minutes to think. See what ‘common sense’ solutions you can come up with, then write them down. They might even be better solutions than what was implemented by the UN. Once you have a few ideas that make sense outside of the ocean of information, continue your research. As you now have something, the material you find will either complement, or supplement what you have found. It can even replace what you originally had, but only if you find something of better value. The key is to come up with the best policy for our specific committee that we can. Having our own direction before we start looking for solutions will keep us from getting lost. Also, sometimes, our own ideas can be the missing element to a very strong Call to Action.

Final Words on Call to Action : When we finish the A of our CIA speech and know what we want to do and how we want to do it, we can be very emotionally connected to our policy. This is great! However, this emotional connection does not mean other policies cannot exist alongside it, or also be relevant, even extremely relevant.

When it comes to a Call to Action, remember that there can be many solutions to the same problem!

Even if your Call to Action is objectively the best one you know, not everyone will agree.  You need to be ready to fight for why your Call to Action is extremely relevant and the best course of action to take. Also, if we don’t want to work with someone, make sure you have a Call to Action which clashes with something on the other resolution.

MUN Speech Format

While many MUN beginner delegates look for formatting instructions as they try to figure out how to prepare a GSL speech, the truth is that there is no required format for a MUN speech. CIA, country ownership and proper use of research will influence the content, but the only one who will see the speech itself is you. As long as you can clearly read the text, don’t get lost and are able to deliver it well, that is really all that matters. So format the speech in a way that suits your style.

MUN Opening Speech Strategy

When it comes to MUN speech strategy, how we start our speeches is very important. Many things can influence our first speeches, from the nature of the topic (Some topics can be more Clash or Call to Action heavy) to what letter of the alphabet our country starts with. The following strategies should be taken into account to make sure you nail your opening speech.

How to Start Your Opening Speech

The first rule of a MUN opening speech is to be interesting to your audience. This is especially important in a large committee, where they might not see you and will only hear your voice, potentially over a screechy microphone!

First Letter Of Your Country = Different Speech Strategy

Before you give your speech, look at what letter of the alphabet your country starts with.

If your country starts with an A or B, you might be able to give a speech introducing the topic as a whole. However, if you are Turkmenistan, it is very likely that your clash has been touched on, as have some of the policies you might want to state. Remember, saying it first does not mean saying it best . As Turkmenistan, much of what you would say will already be said, even if in a less clear or focused way. For this reason, write your speech with the end of the list in mind. Avoid spending time introducing concepts and make sure that as much of your speech as possible is unique to you, and detailed enough to get you the credit for presenting the idea best, even if not first. (More on strategies to adapt your speech to the discussion in the committee are in the next section of this article.)

Intelligent Use of Soundbites

Whether you are 1 out of 15, or one out of 200, your fellow delegates actually listening to your speech is essential in getting your ideas out there. Your first and last sentences should aim to be attention grabbers, but not so much so that the rest of your speech won’t be taken seriously. After you have their attention, try and get to your CIA as quickly and clearly as possible. Starting strong is more important than ending strong, but both are important if you want future listeners. Make it worth their while.

Opening: Do you hate mosquitoes? Honorable Chair, distinguished delegates, the delegate of Namibia hate mosquitoes, and that’s when they bite me without a fatal virus! The Zika virus must be stopped…

Ending: … those mosquitoes may bite us today, but now it’s time for the World Health Organization to bite back!

Echo and Name Drop Strategically

Unless you are the first to speak, you will be able to use the names, and words of delegates who came before you in your speech.

Saying other delegates’ names in your speech, whether allies or members of other blocks, will usually have them perk up and listen to what you are saying, because you used their name. Echoing also makes other delegates feel that you speak for a block and not just yourself. Often, echoing is reciprocal. If you use other countries’ names, they will use yours.

You can also respond to other delegates’ Calls to Action in your speech. This can be to support, refute or connect your ideas to theirs. Just make sure their ideas aren’t hugely popular. This will make you more relevant in the debate.

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Topics “Without a Clash”

Not all topics have a clear clash to start with. Some topics can be very principled. In those, the majority of the debate is spent setting the clash and, once decided, the Call to Action falls into place. On the other hand, some topics are off clash and result in battles of Calls to Action to decide which policy to choose from (Example: Helping flood victims). In those cases, mini clashes need to be created to kickstart the debate. However, it will still usually come down to measuring the effectiveness of policies against each other, rather than deciding if to be for or against a course of action.

Clash Heavy Topics

Requiring an international military presence remain in Syria

Phasing out the mining and use of coal for energy

Minimizing conflict in the South China Sea

Off Clash Topics / Call to Action Heavy Topics

Tackling and treating STIs and HIV/AIDS

Access to clean water

Combatting honor killings

Repair and resettlement after an earthquake

In the Clash heavy topics, countries can be on either side of the clash. Calls to Action heavy topics are also called Battles of Calls to Action. They are situations where everyone agrees on the macro clash (no one will say they support the idea that honor killings are good because the world is overpopulated) and the debate will focus on how best to solve the problem / which policies are the most important and central.

(To learn about other ways to interpret MUN topics, check out the “Identifying Types of MUN Topics” in the second part of this article ).

Macro Clash and Micro Clash

When the study guides give us a clash that has two clear sides, for example, giving illegal migrants from a warzone refugee status, all countries should have an opinion on the larger issue. An issue which starts the committee off by dividing the delegates into two groups is called a Macro Clash. It is the initial clash which requires a yes or no opinion from almost every country. The “Clash heavy topics” in the section above are all topics with a Macro Clash.

Identifying a Macro Clash

• It is obvious in the study guides
• Most countries will have an opinion
• There is only one of them per topic
• Everything else you do or think is a direct result of your position on the Macro Clash

Just because a topic has a Macro clash, it does not mean that both sides will be of equal size. If the topic is around child marriage, for example, it is likely that the majority of the countries would be against. The same applies for topics discussing the proliferation of nuclear weapons. This means that once the Macro Clash is set (and this can become clear by the middle of opening statements), the discussion moves from getting a majority on the Macro Clash to setting new clashes within what has become the new topic of discussion. This new clash, within the side of the Macro Clash that is chosen, is called a Micro Clash. It is a Clash within a Clash and is the new point of contention, once the majority reaches a consensus on the previous clash.

Identifying a Micro Clash

• It is an important question that will need to be answered on one side of the Macro Clash
• Most countries on that side of the Clash will have a particular opinion
• This discussion can become central, once the Macro Clash has a majority to one side

A Macro Clash can have many Micro Clashes within it. Furthermore, a Micro Clash can become the new Macro Clash, if enough of the committee agree on the next level of debate. The following example will show how this may occur.

Committee: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

Topic: Child Marriage

By the end of opening statements, 85% of the 60 delegates are strongly against child marriage. Allowing child marriage to continue undisturbed is no longer on the table. The remaining 15% can try to get some form of moral high ground, but it is clear that no resolution can pass with the pro child marriage countries continuing as they have so far.

However, even though they have a clear majority, the 85% could now go into the following Micro Clashes:

• Should the UN take collective action, or is child marriage an issue which countries should respond to individually?
• Should nations who condone child marriage be given warnings first?
• If married children emigrate, to a country where the practice is illegal, should they retroactively be annulled?

All of these Micro Clashes are yes or no questions, which could easily split the 85% majority into two groups of equal size. If that happens, neither of them will have a majority.

The discussion continues and a 75% majority is in favor of discussing the first Micro Clash. This now transforms the question “Should the UN take collective action, or is child marriage an issue which countries should respond to individually?” into the new Macro Clash.

The debate continues and a clear majority say that they believe the United Nations, as a whole, should take action. Now that the committee have agreed that the UN should be the one to take action, this clash too has been moved beyond and new Micro Clashes may arise. These could be:

• Should countries who have reduced the number, but still legally allow it, be punished as harshly?
• What should the punishment be? Should economic sanctions be used?

And so the debate continues.

As seen in the example above, the debate will continue to move from Micro Clash to Micro Clash until the committee decides, intentionally or otherwise, which clashes they want to discuss. This usually happens when one side no longer has a clear majority and realize they need to start working to retain what they have. Some beginner committees will have the entire room agree the entire time. This usually upsets chairs, who will have chosen the topic with some debate in mind, and is often not representative of reality. If an entire room agrees, it usually means some of the countries are acting off policy, which as discussed earlier in this article, is not representative of the people within that country.

Start From The Relevant Clash

When you are confident that the majority of the room will go in a certain direction, start your speech about where the topic is going to be headed, instead of echoing the majority opinion.

Sometimes, the majority going overwhelmingly to one side of the Clash may sometimes come as a surprise. However, for many topics (like the examples above) it is fairly obvious that the entire committee will agree on the Macro Clash and quickly go to one of the Micro Clashes. As the Macro Clash will quickly become off clash (because no one will condone honor killings) your research and your speech itself speech should be already aimed at winning the Micro Clash; particularly the micro clash you anticipate to be where the debate actually starts. Don’t talk about why child marriage is immoral or wrong; even if your country starts with the letter A, do not give a speech that will be repeated by many others in the room. Go straight to the Micro Clash that you want to set as the main focus; by the time the rest of the committee gets there, you will be ahead of the curve and could be giving follow-up speeches on the Micro Clash before most delegates give their first. Sometimes, this early start on a discussion you know will happen, can be the difference in leading the debate in the direction that will pass your draft resolution with a clear majority.

CIA Structure Is Not Concrete

The order of CIA is not set/fixed. You can start with the C, I or the A. You can switch the order if you believe it will make a stronger impact, will sound better or for many other reasons.

If you’re starting out, it is recommended that you try to use the C, I and A in their intended order. A clear clash lets everyone know how to categorize the rest of your speech. After that, the rest should fall into place. If you are unsure how to start a MUN speech, always start with the clash. However, if some other order works better, remember that there is no single right way to do

Follow Up Speech Strategies

Before you even start the first word of your opening speech, please keep in mind that you will need to follow up on your main point. Many, many times over. The following strategies will help you prepare for the speeches following up on your opening speech, to keep everything consistent and continue to be hard-hitting throughout the MUN.

Repeat Your Main Points. Always.

Repetition is key in MUN speeches. While CIA is the core of your MUN opening speech, one excellent speech is not enough. Furthermore, even if you give the best MUN speech in the history of MUN speeches after you are done, someone else will speak and eventually, your brilliant oration will be old news. You must keep the high quality of your speeches consistent throughout.

It is i mportant that each following speech repeats the core ideas of your case and links back to your original clashes and policies. This must continue over the span of the simulation. The focus of the debate can change, and you might need to change the clash or even your practical policy. However, your core interest must remain consistent, and that needs to continue to shine through.

You can use the occasional speech to reframe/clean up the debate (“To recap, this is what we have heard so far…”) or refute the other side (“They said X, however, this is clearly incorrect and here’s why..”). However, even these should come back to your core case and show “Why (my) Call to Action is the best way to solve issue X!”.

Continue to Echo and Name Drop

Just because you got their attention the first time does not mean that you will have it the next time without work. You should get used to mentioning 1-3 allies and 2-3 opponents in each speech. You should try and quote another delegate at least once in every other speech.

When you say their name they will listen. Do this well and your allies will mention you in their speeches. Your opposing blocks may mention you as well. Being mentioned by other countries in their speeches will not only make your country name more known but also make it more likely for your ideas to stay on the table. 

Adapting your Speech for Success

After the opening speeches are given, we can sometimes find ourselves ‘less unique’ than we expected. Below is a list of strategies to keep your policy on the table, while still being unique to you and your country.

Details Can Make a Call to Action Yours

Sometimes, we have a country with a letter from the end of the alphabet and when the room finally reaches our speech, our clash and/or Call to Action has already been said, potentially multiple times. Chairs write Model UN study guides with some sort of discussion in mind, meaning they expect that some delegates will come up with similar ideas. Remember, other delegates saying your Clash or Call to Action before you do, DOES NOT MAKE IT THEIRS . It could be a one-off speech, or they might not have been aware they even said it. So many excellent ideas are lost because a delegate planned for just one speech or they simply did not realize what a great idea they have.

If someone else states your Call to Action, whether in a one-liner or as the focus of an entire speech, YOU SAY IT BETTER ! Drill your points down in detail and give a more in-depth explanation of why it’s going to work. Show everyone in the room that it is your explanation which makes it a revolutionary policy. Go into the speech treating the idea as your own. The previous speaker was simply headlining it for you.

Turkey: We need to build desalination plants to help Kuwait increase water supply.

Moldova: We agree that desalination is the best course of action. However, for this to work, we need to specifically build Vapor Compression Distillation plants; these only require electricity to operate and Kuwait is energy rich.

You Can Drill Down For Any Policy

We don’t always choose the winning policy. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, a different policy ends up more central to the Clash than the one we planned for or predicted. In such a case, it could be strategic to drop your policy and use your speech to build on the more central idea, using the same method of describing a policy in more depth. It might not make you the main sponsor of the idea, but your place as a constructive partner could get you a central position in the coalition. Sometimes, compromise is better than having no input at all in the final resolution.

Flexibility is key in MUN and most chairs will give the credit to the delegate who was the main champion of the idea, not the person who said it first. For this reason, you can be the main proponent of the idea, and a major contributor, even if you didn’t come up with the original Call to Action. The key is reading the room and making sure the policy works with your country’s interest.

Strategically Choose When Policies Can or Can’t Coexist

A resolution is not limited to one Call to Action. Most resolutions will have a few different practical solutions in one document. Sometimes, they are complementary, while other times they are disconnected and simply co-exist on the resolution. If you are an experienced delegate, you should already be practiced at adopting your policies to the room you are in. You should also know when you see a block, or delegate, you do not want on your side; you need to make sure to have a policy that clashes with something in their speech or resolution.

In the end, the better solution PLUS the better coalition will win out . What is certain is that no solution, or a bad one, won’t stick .  As we stated before, the work doesn’t stop when you find a good Call to Action, you need to be ready to defend it. You will defend it in your speeches, get it echoed by your coalition allies and use all the MUN tools at your disposal to get it on that final draft of the resolution.

In a Battle of Calls to Action – Yours Comes First

Sometimes you reach that point in a battle of Calls to Action where the policies are being measured against each other. In those cases, a way to bring yours to the top is to say that theirs is a good idea, but it can only come after yours is implemented.

We agree with Malta that we should build schools for the children in the refugee camp. However, without a regular supply of food aid, they will not be able to truly benefit from the classes.

Delivery Tips – Putting the Public in “Public Speech”

While some are more relevant to beginners, all of these tips are important in getting your speech heard, understood and agreed with by the rest of your MUN committee.

Practice Your Opening Speech Out Loud

Specifically for your opening statement. Speak it out, see what flows and naturally rolls off your tongue. While later speeches are no less important, this is the your first impression and you want to do it right!

WRITE YOUR SPEECH DOWN

When we speak off the cuff, we naturally leave out specific names, dates and numbers. The same happens when we speak from memory. To convey a general idea is natural, but it’s the last thing we want to do in Model UN. Our goal in our speeches is to establish ourselves as knowledgeable, competent and worth working with. The desire to collaborate from other delegates will not come from generalizations and vague descriptions.

To ensure you do not forget any important facts, or the sentences you so carefully crafted, you should do the following:

• Have your entire speech, or selected bullet points in front of you, printed on paper.
• Use a large enough font to read from a distance, so you do not disengage the audience trying to read small text.
• You can also bold/italicize words that you want to emphasize. There are other markings you can use to modify speed, volume, gestures and more. 

Particularly when in a large room, it is much better to read straight from the paper. One should always prefer to be clearly heard and understood, than to miss words, facts and fail to deliver your point.

Practice with a Stopwatch

Ideally, you want to finish your 60-second speech at 0:58:5 seconds. You do not want your chair to cut you off. Practice your speech to make sure if it meets the time. Don’t be afraid to remove words and rephrase. Keep working on it until it does.

Slow and Clear Beats Fast and Crammed

Your goal is to be understood by everyone in the room. It is better to take out words and speak slowly, than to rush and get everything in. You will not properly hear or remember other rushed delegates, so don’t be part of that club.

(Again, Delivery Cues can help your speech and they’re right here!)

Bring the Right Amount of Information

Make sure the number of facts in your speech is digestible. It is the arguments you use which will persuade, not the long list of names and numbers that no one else found on the internet. Avoid information overload; it is best to use 2-5 facts in a one-minute speech, to be decided based on the content. Information can go a long way, but it needs to come as support, not as the main substance.

Put Your Most Important Points at the Beginning

Do not try to end with a strong punchline that will magically bring it all together. Most delegates will likely lose attention by that point. You want to introduce your Clash the second your opening soundbite ends. Even better, your Clash may be part of the opening sound byte.

Canada believes the only way to stop domestic violence is to throw anyone who is reported to be violent into a holding cell for 72 hours immediately after the call!

As seen here, Canada (1) set the clash, (2) showed what side they were on and (3) eluded to their Call to Action all in one sentence . Now, no matter what they say next, everyone knows where they stand. The other delegates can listen as you develop your plan / bring examples, etc. but even if they stop listening at that very moment, they know where Canada stands in the room.

Choose Effectiveness Over Emotional Attachment

We sometimes write lines in our first draft that we can’t seem to let go of. It is even harder when we write a speech by hand. We might want to keep this line because we researched for many hours to find that particular fact, or for some strange reason, the line sounds too good to us to pass up. Our goal is to be understood by others and get the desired outcome, everything we do is geared towards that goal. For those who find it especially hard, know that the abilit y to let go of lines will come with time and practice.

Always Speak

While CIA is very important, as a rule of thumb, it is ALWAYS better to give an imperfect speech than to say nothing. Speaking regularly and frequently raising your placard shows the chairs and other delegates that you are someone active, serious about the issues at hand and worth taking into consideration.

Some things to do when you are not sure what to say:

• Paraphrase one of your previous speeches.
• Write down a line from another delegate’s speech. In your speech, direct quote them and disagree.
• Summarize the past few speeches and say that you agree or disagree and why.
• Mention the names of countries in a block with their main points. If it’s your block, you can agree. If it’s another block, do the opposite.

Confidence, name dropping and rhetorical ability will grow with time, but being perceived as active is just as important. The delegates taken most seriously are those who are active and have impressive content and strategy. The one certainty is that imperfect action will always be better than smart and silent.

For more tips about delivery and public speaking, check out our guide on Public Speaking for MUN .

Use a Fact Sheet for Follow Up Speeches

You will not have space in your opening CIA speech for everything important that you find during your research. For this reason, it is good to keep a second document to put all the important facts and figures on, which could not appear in the opening speech. Keep this Quick Reference Fact Sheet with you during committee session. If you did a good job with your research to predict the direction of the debate, your fact sheet will likely be useful in a follow-up speech, or to answer a Point of Information. Copying over these numbers, names and dates while researching will take little effort at the time, yet having them for reference later can be anything from helpful, to life-saving. Also if it is a multi-day conference, doing some research on your main opponents’ policies and countries can be useful

A MUN speech does not exist in a vacuum from everything else that happens in the room. It is part of a larger strategy looking to influence the policy outcome however it can. The right Clashes, Information and Calls to Action will not only guide your opening speech, but also the clauses you write, the allies you work with and the compromises you are willing to make. Being off clash can result in time and opportunity wasted and other blocks gaining ground on the floor. We should not expect to be perfect, it is practice and experience that brings about greater speeches. So, on the bright side, you can expect your MUN speeches to improve as you gain MUN experience.

Whether a beginner, intermediate or veteran, the power of a good speech is universal at all MUN conferences. To be able to set the Clash, strategically and constantly use relevant Information and get your Call to Action a central spot on the resolution, is what will distinguish the top delegates from the rest.

In a Nutshell

When writing a MUN opening speech / GSL speech, or any later speech, make sure you have your CIA threaded throughout your speeches and guiding them.

For the opening speech, clearly,  state which clash you’re talking about and on what side of it you’re on. Bring information/facts  and research which strengthens your speech and position.

Present / connect them to an actionable, practical solution that you want to implement.

As you continue throughout the committee session, repeat your main ideas in your follow up speeches. Connect your ideas to others when you can,  and connect them to others in the room.

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Speech: Seize opportunities, rise beyond challenges, recommit and push forward, boldly

Remarks to the security council “maintenance of international peace and security: the role of women and young people” by sima bahous, usg and un women executive director.

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[As delivered]

My thanks to Mozambique for convening us around the crucial agenda of women, youth, peace, and security.

On November 1 st last year, UN Women published a story about a 34-year-old psychotherapist in Rafah. She specialized in helping patients process the trauma of living in conflict. Her name was Amani.

A few short weeks ago, on May 7 th , Amani was killed alongside her four children.

Amani is one of more than 10,000 women killed in the last seven months. Just yesterday, scores of women and children were horrifically killed in Rafah, in a safe zone while they were asleep in tents in a camp for the displaced. It is for Amani, and for them, and for all women and girls caught in this conflict, that we demand a permanent ceasefire, unhindered humanitarian access, the release of all hostages, the determined pursuit of peace and a two-state solution. This war must stop, because women and girls are bearing the brunt of it.

Last year, nearly 300 human rights defenders were killed, 49 of whom were women. These are just the known cases, there are likely many more.

In January 2023, Mursal a young woman, and former member of Parliament in Afghanistan, was shot and killed in her home near Kabul. She stayed behind when the Taliban took over, still clinging to hope that her contribution to the development of her country would be valued.

In October last year, Halima, a 30-year-old journalist was killed while covering the war in her native Sudan.

Amani, Mursal, Halima and the lives of women whose names we will never know, were a demonstration of the power of women’s contribution in crisis. The way they carry their families and nations on their shoulders and the way they bear the brunt of it all. The imperative of their knowledge of their communities, their voice and leadership in decision-making.

Their death is another painful reminder of the realities of war for women and girls, and that the disproportionate harm inflicted on women during wars and conflicts not of their making.

To echo the Secretary-General, “to silence the guns, we must raise the voices for peace.”

While here we rightly embrace Security Council Resolution 1325 as a crucial global norm, for them it remains a distant dream. Not only in Gaza but in Haiti, in Myanmar, in Sudan, in the DRC, in Yemen, in Afghanistan, in too many countries to count the world over.

I salute this Council´s efforts on increasing the voices of women, including young women, as briefers. I commend this and urge you to continue to do so, to listen, to engage, and to act on their asks.

Young women and girls face a double discrimination that is intensified during conflict: discrimination for their sex, and for their age.

I applaud the examples of progress made to address this in the Secretary-General’s report on youth, peace and security, which USG DiCarlo shared with us. Allow me to share a few more examples, highlighting what can be done.

As UN Women we have conducted capacity-building initiatives for youth organizations to participate in peace processes in Georgia and transitional justice initiatives in Lebanon.

Last year, UN Women and UNFPA supported 79 peacebuilding processes that were inclusive of young women, across 17 different countries.

And since 2016, the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund for which we serve as Secretariat has supported organizations focused on youth or led by young women from 18 different countries. The funding window for women human rights defenders, set up in 2022, has already supported young women from 21 conflict-affected countries.

In Afghanistan, UN Women, IOM, and UNAMA have been conducting quarterly surveys to hear from Afghan women including special emphasis on young women.

We also continue to help break down barriers to inclusion, by finding ways to engage women and young women. For example, we know that inter-generational dialogues in conflict-affected countries can have a powerful impact in communities searching for a way out of violence and division.

We must create more such spaces and ensure representation of women and young women across decision-making bodies.

These examples show us what can be done, and that there are solutions we can take to scale. The reality is that we are not doing so. 

This is despite the clear experience that engaging young women in development, in ensuring that they have equal opportunities, including equal access to the job market, helps sow social cohesion and stability, and grows economies.

What we must do is to ensure that we are breaking down power structures and harmful norms that hinder young women and girls from their full and meaningful participation, and that diminish their voice and their crucial contribution as leaders in their own right. And, crucially, we must protect women’s and girls´ education, their autonomy, and their freedom to decide on all their choices in life.

In Afghanistan, it has been three years since the ban on the right to education has left 1.1 million Afghan girls out of school.

In West and Central Africa more than 13,000 schools have closed in recent years because of conflict and insecurity, affecting millions of girls.

In Gaza, girls and boys have been out of school since October 7 th .

In Haiti, hundreds of schools have been closed, teachers have been attacked, and thousands of children are out of school.

In Sudan, 19 million school-age children are out of the classroom.

In Ukraine, around 40 per cent of children cannot access continuous education due to a lack of facilities.

There is no second chance at childhood. How can our ambitions, to rise to the responsibilities we have to afford young women and girls the best we can offer, ever be realized when they have been denied their most basic of rights?

I will conclude with three priority areas that require our collective attention, efforts and commitment.

First, we must bring young women to the heart of actual decision-making. When we speak of women’s meaningful participation, including young women, lip service is to be condemned.

Real commitment is quotas, temporary special measures or other concrete, genuine efforts to not only talk about it, but to do it.

Second, we must combat division, hate, and disinformation. Our battleground is increasingly online, and we are losing. I have no doubt that we can ultimately not only win, but that we will win. But for us to win, it will be key, as we find our approaches to the challenges of social media, artificial intelligence, and even to new technologies not yet imagined, that the role of young women in their use, understanding, and regulation will be crucial. 

No technology is inherently good or bad until we humans decide how it is to be employed, and how its benefits and harms are to be leveraged.

Third, young women must be far better represented at the peace table and in parliaments. Globally less than 1 per cent of parliamentarians are young women. 

Even where opportunities for civic engagement have been closed, you will find them in the streets, joining and leading social movements and protests. Their voices are powerful.

We have seen young women fight and sacrifice for peace, democracy, and gender equality in many conflict-affected countries, from Gaza, to Sudan, to Haiti to Myanmar, to Afghanistan and many more.

They are heroes, they are unrelenting, and they will persist and endure. Of that we should be in no doubt. 

The question for us is whether we will stand by their side or instead, as too often, we will lack that courage.

Most of all we must listen and commit not to awaiting a future fit for them, but rather to hastening this future in everything we do. For the distinguished UN Security Council, it must begin with every peacebuilding process supported by the UN in any capacity.

This year brings unique opportunities to place young women at the core of gender equality action.

That includes the Summit of the Future. Next year, the Beijing Platform for Action marks 30 years and UN Security Council Resolution 1325 marks 25 years.

It will also be ten years since the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2250, which recognized for the first time the important role and leadership of young people in building and sustaining peace. If you recall, the adoption then was chaired by the Crown Prince of Jordan – the youngest person ever to chair the Security Council.

We must seize these opportunities, rise beyond the challenges which hold us back in the United Nations and elsewhere, recommit and push forward, boldly.

Young women are the leaders of tomorrow and the change-makers of today. We must engage with them as such, with the commitment and urgency they deserve.

And, in this complex landscape of conflicts, crises, and challenges, we must recognize their aspirations everywhere -- as universal.

They have a right to a world free from violence and fear, a world where their dreams can flourish, where they can ascend to their full potential. And protecting and promoting their rights is our duty.

So, let us hold dear the vision of a future where every girl becomes all she can be, where her hopes for a peaceful and vibrant future are our North Star, where we finally act upon our shared responsibility with determination and sincerity. And in that way, let us build, together, the world that our children and their children deserve, the world they imagine and that we need, for all young people, everywhere, always.

I thank you.

• Conflict, war
• Peace and security

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Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon,

In a short while, I will be joined by the Director of Advocacy and Operations for OCHA, Edem Wosornu.

She will update you on her recent missions to Afghanistan and Pakistan last week, as well as to Sudan earlier this month.

** Security Council

This morning, the Secretary-General of the United Nations addressed the Security Council of the United Nations.  He spoke at an open debate on strengthening Africa’s role in security and development globally.

Recognizing Africa’s crucial role, he said the continent is home to many examples of unity and solidarity in a fractured world , ranging from the focus on ending poverty and hunger, to supporting refugees fleeing across borders and achieving sustainable development.

“Now is the time to unleash Africa’s peace power,” Mr. Guterres said.

The Secretary-General added that strengthening Africa’s voice can only happen if African countries can participate in global governance structures as equals.  This must include correcting the lack of permanent African representation on the Security Council.

** Srebrenica

Today, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, welcomed the resolution adopted by the General Assembly to designate 11 July as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica.

This resolution is further recognition of the victims and survivors and their pursuit of justice, truth and guarantees of non-recurrence, he said, adding it is also an important step towards promotion of a culture of remembrance and peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in the region.

For her part, Alice Nderitu, the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, also welcomed the resolution, saying it will be instrumental in honouring the victims, ensuring that their sacrifice is never forgotten as well as cementing the legacy of those who worked so tirelessly to bring justice to the victims.

** Occupied Palestinian Territory

Turning to the situation in Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that if aid does not begin to enter Gaza in massive quantities, desperation and hunger will spread even further.

The closure of the Rafah crossing and limited functionality of Kerem Shalom in the south have choked off the flow of life-saving supplies.

The World Food Programme says there are no food distributions taking place in the south, except for some limited stocks that are being provided to community kitchens for hot meals.  The World Food Programme hopes to work with partners to see more community kitchens open in areas like Khan Younis, which is hosting people who have fled the escalating hostilities in Rafah.  Since the beginning of this month, WFP has worked with more than 70 community kitchens across Gaza to provide some 4.4 million hot meals to the people of Gaza.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization reports that many hospitals lack fuel and medicines due to the continued closure of the Rafah crossing.  In a social media post, Dr. Tedros, the head of the World Health Organization, warns that access to health care across Gaza is shrinking.  He said that Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north is also no longer functioning.

WHO said another hospital in the north, Al-Awda, was reportedly invaded earlier on Wednesday, after days under siege.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank, OCHA says that 12 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli operation in Jenin, which concluded yesterday.  More than [two] dozen others were injured, including one medical worker.  Multiple UNRWA [UN Relief and Works Agency] facilities were damaged, and residential shelters and civilian infrastructure were also destroyed.

And you’ve been asking about fuel supply issue in Gaza, and I can tell you that just over one million litres of fuel have entered the Gaza Strip since the Rafah operation began on 6 May.  This means that, on average, we are receiving just 29 per cent of the fuel allocations that we would have received under arrangements in place prior to 6 May, further hindering the functioning of bakeries, hospitals, water wells, and other critical infrastructure.

Also, I have a short update on our activities in Haiti.

You will recall that we mentioned food distributions in Cité Soleil, in the capital Port-au-Prince, in an effort to address alarming reports regarding the food security situation there.

In total, some 93,000 people were reached with over 600 metric tonnes of food in the past two weeks alone.

Since early March, WFP has provided close to 900,000 hot meals — to about 100,000 people in 80 displacement sites in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area.

Our colleagues from the International Organization for Migration — IOM — tell us that, yesterday, they distributed 34,000 litres of water in three sites for displaced people in the capital.

They also continued to provide medical services through a mobile clinic in a Port-au-Prince site.

** South Sudan

Moving to South Sudan:  The Head of our peacekeeping mission there, Nicholas Haysom, today attended a meeting in Juba of the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission.  He grabbed this opportunity to stress the urgent need for the transitional Government to fully implement the Revitalized Peace Agreement in view of the dire economic and humanitarian situation in South Sudan, as well as the reports of anticipated flooding due to the rising waters of the Nile waters.

Mr. Haysom also emphasized the need to meet minimum political and technical preconditions required for a free, fair and credible electoral process, given the marginal progress we’ve seen in recent months.

He, of course, reiterated our full support for efforts to build the foundations of democracy, peace and stability through the peace agreement.

** Democratic Republic of the Congo

And in nearby Democratic Republic of the Congo, our peacekeeping colleagues there report that they are conducting day and night joint patrols with the Congolese armed forces in several areas in the province of North Kivu. This is done to ensure the protection of civilians and prevent the free movement of armed groups, particularly the Allied Democratic Forces [ADF].  Together with the M23 armed group, the ADF account for most of the security incidents in the province of North Kivu.

The patrols are done in response to alerts received from communities and reports of armed groups or planned attacks by these groups.

** USG Martin Griffiths

Our friend, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, has wrapped up a visit to Abu Dhabi, where he met with Emirati officials to discuss humanitarian issues and ways to further strengthen the collaboration between the UAE [United Arab Emirates] and the United Nations.

Meanwhile, in a social media post today, Mr. Griffiths thanked Qatar for its efforts to reunite with their families six children from Ukraine who had been displaced into Russia.  He noted that this underscores the strength of Qatar’s humanitarian leadership.

And staying on Ukraine.  Today in Ukraine, Denise Brown, whom you know, leads the UN’s efforts in Ukraine, condemned the deadly attacks on Kharkiv city, which follow two weeks of attacks on the region.

Homes, businesses, transport and other civilian infrastructure have been destroyed and thousands of civilians, including older people and people with disabilities, have been forced to flee, leaving their entire lives behind.

We, along with our humanitarian partners continue to support evacuated people and those impacted by the strikes.

The humanitarian response also continues across Ukraine.  As of the end of April, nearly 500 partners provided assistance to 4.4 million people in Ukraine as part of the 2024 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan.

** Senior Personnel Appointment

Senior personnel appointment for you.  Our good friend, Mari Yamashita of Japan has been appointed by the Secretary-General as the Deputy Head of Mission of the UN Mission to support the Hudaydah Agreement (UNMHA).

Ms. Yamashita succeeds Vivian van der Perre of the Netherlands who was appointed as Deputy Special Representative for Protection and Operations at the Peacekeeping mission in the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo].

Ms. Yamashita brings to the position a broad range of experience with the UN based on a career spanning over 30 years working on preventive diplomacy, peacebuilding and external relations both at UN Headquarters and globally.  Since 2020, she has been the Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Office in Belgrade.  We congratulate her.  Much more on the interweb.

**I nternational Days

Two days to mark today.  Today is, for Buddhists across the globe, they celebrate Vesak Day, which marks the birth, enlightenment and the passing of the Buddha.

In his message, the Secretary-General recalled his visit last year to Buddha’s birthplace in Lumbini, in Nepal.  He said that this inspiring visit re-affirmed his conviction that the Buddha’s timeless teachings of peace are the pathway to a better world for all.

Also today is the International Day to End Obstetric Fistula. This childbirth injury, resulting from prolonged and obstructed labour, is not just a medical issue but a reflection of a systemic inequalities ingrained within societies.  And this year’s theme is “Breaking the Cycle:  Preventing Fistula Worldwide.”

** Questions and Answers

Spokesman :  Mr. Schwinghammer.

Question :  Thank you so much.  Steph. I have a couple of questions and I may start with the military drill that China holds around Taiwan right now. Is there any comment from your side?

Spokesman :  Yes.  What’s the other question in the meantime and will get to you.

Question :  The other question in the meantime is that I watched the GA as I think you did as well.  And we heard some pretty direct statements towards Germany, Ambassador [Vassily] Nebenzia said, “we are convinced that Germany has no moral authority to even mention the term of genocide to describe anything other than their own atrocious crimes”.  I don’t ask you to comment on Ambassador Nebenzia now about the underlying notion. Does Germany have the moral authority to talk about any other genocide than the Holocaust?

Spokesman :  Look, I’m not going to provide colour commentary to what is said by various permanent representatives.  I think all Member States have a duty and obligations to uphold the moral dignity that is ingrained in the UN Charter.  On China, I can tell you that we’re, of course, following the developments in the Taiwan Straits closely.  We urge the relevant parties to refrain from acts that could escalate tensions in the region.  And as you know, on the issue of China, we are guided by the General Assembly resolution of 1971.  Madame.

Question :  Thank you.  Steph. Following up on your update on the situation with regards to hospitals in Gaza.  Earlier today, the hospital officials for Al-Aqsa hospitals had a press conference in which they said they were hours away from running out of fuel. They also… the hospital director in particular named the UN, and he implored the UN to do all it can do to get fuel to them.  He also, and I quote, said the UN was procrastinating.  How would you like to respond?

Spokesman :  It’s hard to imagine the kind of pressures that health officials, hospital directors in Gaza and the level of frustration and anger at the situation.  So, I’m not going to comment on his characterization.  I can only tell you that we are doing everything possible to get fuel to hospitals and bakeries and so on, but there is not enough fuel coming in. So, everyone is having, including ourselves, having to stretch out whatever fuel reserves there are.

Question :  Can you give us just any idea?  He said a few hours till that particular hospital runs out.  Is that the same situation for everyone?  Do you have like the…

Spokesman :  I don’t have that level of granularity here.  The thing with fuel is that, I think — speaking for ourselves, right — I can’t speak for the hospitals, for ourselves, but when the levels get low, we just stretch it out.  So, it’s hard to say we run out in X number of days.  But I cannot speak for the hospital itself.  Ibtisam, then Benny.

Question :  Thank you, Steph.  I want to go back to the General Assembly and the resolution that was adopted.  Human Rights Watch issued a statement and they said in their statement, among others, that the resolution references the Bosnian Serb leaders convinced [ sic ] by the international tribunal for their role in the genocide, but leaves out any reference to the UN peacekeepers [inaudible] failure to protect thousands of Srebrenica Muslims, men and boys who were summarily executed.  Do you have any comments on that issue, specifically the issue of the role of the UN peacekeeper?

Spokesman :  The Secretariat doesn’t vote, nor does it draft the resolutions. On the issue of the UN conduct and peacekeeping conduct in Srebrenica, I think it has been looked at and studied, notably in the report by Mr. [Lakhdar] Brahimi.  And I think the UN, in terms of the Secretariat, has been very clear on its failings in its operations at the time.  Benny.

Question :  Two questions about two parts of the world, and by the way, is summer over?  The first, about your comment on China and Taiwan.  You said the resolution of 1971.  From what my history, from what I remember, is that’s the resolution that changed Taiwan to China, to communist China, right?  The Republic of China to the People’s Republic of China.  Is that what you’re referring to?  And what does that mean in this context?

Spokesman :  Well, it means in terms of our standing on Taiwan as a province of China.

Question :  So, as far as the UN concerned, China can take over Taiwan anytime?

Spokesman :  That is not at all what I said.  What I said is that we urge the relevant parties to refrain from acts, the acts that could escalate tensions in the region.

Question :  Okay.  Secondly, on another part of the world, Egypt just announced that it will not open the Rafah crossing until Israel leaves the Rafah crossing on the other side.  Any comment?

Spokesman :  Well, we would like to see Egypt and Israel and any other parties involved come to an agreement so that the crossings are reopened.

Question :  Any, any onus on any of the sides here?

Spokesman :  I think there’s onus on all the sides involved.  Madame Beisan.

Question :  There was a political report yesterday, I’m not sure if you’re aware of it, that the Biden Administration is in talks with the EU, with the EU border assistance mission to actually take control of the Rafah border crossing.  Have you seen this?

Spokesman :  I have not.

Question :  Can you get back to us?

Spokesman :  Yes, I have not.  And I can tell you that my answer…  My sense is, once I have read the report, my answer will be that we are not.  We have no comment on whatever discussions may take place, but I’m happy to look at the report nonetheless.

Question :  And on hospitals, I mean, Israel today, they had been.  There was an operation around the Al-Awda hospital, and they actually cleared the hospital from doctors and there was an operation that had been going on for days, if you have any comments.

Spokesman :  Yeah, we mentioned that in my opening.  Yeah.  That’s okay. You, please.

Question :  Thank you, Steph.  So, I have follow-up question about Mari Yamashita.  When will she start to work?

Spokesman :  I will ask her, and I will tell you.  Dezhi.

Question :  Just a quick question.  Does anybody in the UN actually attend the funeral of President of Iran?

Spokesman :  No, sir.  No, we were not.  We were not present.

Question :  Residential coordinators?

Spokesman :  He did not.

Question :  Okay.

Spokesman :  I will get back to you, Benny, let’s go to Michelle and then Abdelhamid.

Question :  A follow-up on Rafah.  Given that Kerem Shalom is open, and Egypt is saying that Rafah is closed because it’s unsafe for humanitarians on the other side, does the UN agree with Egypt’s assessment, or would you like to see the crossing opened and you take your chances?

Spokesman :  Nowhere is safe, 100 per cent safe for, not only for the civilians in Gaza, but for humanitarian workers in Gaza.  The numbers bear that out, tragically.  The Kerem Shalom crossing has… some trucks have come through. The challenge on picking up on the Gaza side of the Karem Abu Salem crossing remain in terms of whether it’s fighting, whether it’s coordination, all of that remains — it’s not simple.  It’s not an either/or.  There are a lot of doorways into Gaza, right.  Whether by land or by sea, we don’t control those doorways, but we want them all to be open.  Abdelhamid.

Spokesman :  Thank you, Stephane.  I don’t know if you were asked this question or not, but as you know, the Associated Press issued a detailed report on Wednesday about the alleged accusation of Hamas committing sexual attacks on the hostages.  The report says that it was clear that the settler…

Spokesman :  Abdelhamid.  What is the question, sir?

Question :  The question is he admitted he fabricated the allegation.  Would the Secretary-General and the senior officials now revise their speeches and take out that sentence about sexual attacks?

Spokesman :  No, I don’t think we will revise what has been said.  What is needed is, and I think Pramila Patten was very clear in her recommendation, is a full and open investigation into what happened.  It is clear that horrific things happened on 7 th of October.  But there needs to be clear investigations.  And I think she made recommendations to that effect.

Question :  Have you seen the report by Associated Press?

Spokesman :  I have seen the report by the Associated Press.

Question :  Is she made available to the Secretary-General, this report.

Spokesman :  The Secretary-General is well aware of what is in the news.  Benno.  You’re good, Benno.  Okay, I will go get our guest and then we’ll hear from Monica [Grayley].  Don’t move, don’t move.

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Small island development ‘a test case’ for climate and financial justice, says Guterres

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Good morning from the blue waters and lush green hills of the Caribbean where earlier we were reporting live from the opening of the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States ( SIDS4 ) on the beautiful twin island nation of Antigua and Barbuda.

Some of the key developments so far on day one of the conference where leaders from governments, the UN, civil society, business, academia and youth activists, have gathered to chart a course towards resilient prosperity for existentially threatened island nations.  

Main points this Monday:

UN_News_Centre

• UN chief António Guterres said it was time for both climate and financial justice across the vulnerable small island developing nations
• This means an end to a “two-speed financial world” and SIDS paying the highest price due to climate change they played no part in causing
• SIDS have born the brunt of global shocks due to COVID, extreme weather, and regional wars causing volatility in the global economy
• The new Antigua and Barbuda Agenda “will outline steps to achieve resilient prosperity in partnership with the international community”, said Mr. Guterres
• King Charles said in a video message that "your future is our future...ultimately all of us need bold and determined action"
• Ignoring SIDS’ predicament “is to gamble with our collective future” warned Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne – we must act with conviction and unyielding resolve
• President of the General Assembly Dennis Francis said without global financial reform, SIDS can’t unleash their full potential or reach the 2030 SDGs
• DESA chief LI Junhua said the conference will be “a catalyst for new and reinvigourated partnerships” and ambitious action to realise that huge potential

For full speaker-by-speaker coverage of the SIDS conference, visit our Meetings Coverage Section here .

‘Listen to us’

The opening session ended with a plea from young Lutrell John, who was one of the delegates to the SIDS Global Children and Youth Action Summit at the weekend.

The fresh-faced Antigua and Barbuda resident told delegates his generation wants a better, safer future.

He recalled the “lifechanging devastation” of Hurricane Irma in 2017 and is increasingly aware of the worsening climate crisis.

“I love my country, it’s beautiful, it’s my home but I fear for my future ”, he said.

If we really want sustainable development, the voices of children must be at the heart of the conversation. “You need to listen to us and respect our ideas and our solutions”, he said.

10:50 AM 

Turning the tide

Echoing the UN chief’s take, LI Junhua, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and Secretary-General of the SIDS4 Conference, said that the agreed ABAS commitment tells the SIDS’ story.

“But most importantly it shows the global community how we can together set out to support them . It offers an opportunity to turn the tide and set SIDS on the path to achieve resilient prosperity.”

He said that the conference will be “a catalyst for new and reinvigourated partnerships, financing and ambitious actions to  support these extraordinary island nations to reach their potential.”

He called for everyone in the room to deliver the ambitious ABAS programme together.

President of the General Assembly Dennis Francis – who hails from the nearby Caribbean State Trinidad and Tobago - said the long-awaited SIDS4 conference “offers a powerful once in a decade platform” for action, under the ABAS action programme.

"If we do not undertake substantive reform of the international financial framework and the multilateral architecture – and their governance – developing countries including SIDS, cannot unleash their full potential to mobilize much-needed resources to achieve the 2030 Agenda and it’s SDGs ”, he told the conference.

Small island States ‘a test case for climate justice and financial justice’

The world must not allow the loss of a single country or culture due to global warming or a continuation of a “two-speed financial world” where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, said UN chief António Guterres in his opening address.

Mr. Guterres said along with their exceptional beauty – be it the blue waters of the Caribbean, South Pacific or the Indian Ocean - SIDS are also exceptionally vulnerable. 

“Your unique geography puts you at the mercy of climate chaos , rising sea levels and land degradation. Climate change is an existential crisis for the entire human family, but SIDS are on the frontlines.”

Reliant on imports and complex supply chains, the global shocks of record extreme weather, the tourism destroying COVID pandemic and regional wars, many SIDS have been left reeling in rough waters.

Life rafts needed

“The new Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS outlines steps to achieve resilient prosperity in partnership with the international community ”, said the UN chief. 

“The United Nations stands with you” in battling the climate crisis; building resilient economies; safe and healthy societies, biodiversity conservation; “and to protect and sustainably use the ocean and its resources.”

He called on SIDS to make bold and sustainable investments themselves – but they can’t succeed alone. 

“The international community has a duty to support you – led by the countries that have greatest responsibility and capacity to deal with the challenges you face”, he declared.

Justice at the core

“ SIDS are a test case for climate justice and financial justice ”, he said, and with the 1.5 degree limit in temperature rise already fast approaching, “we cannot accept the disappearance of any country or culture under the rising waves.”

“The idea that an entire island state could become collateral damage for profiteering by the fossil fuel industry, or competition between major economies, is simply obscene ." 

SIDS have led from the front for decades already, serving as the world’s conscience on the climate crisis – making the difference in Paris in 2015.

“Today, we need your fierce voices more than ever”, said the Secretary-General.

‘Sky high costs’

SIDS also need financial justice, he explained, urging leaders in Antigua to insist developed countries come through on pledges to double adaptation financing to allow proper defences to be built to save island nations from destruction. 

“You also have every right to call for new and significant contributions to the Loss and Damage Fund. Some of your countries have suffered damage worth more than half their GDP overnight, in cyclones and storms”, Mr. Guterres said. 

“ But we are in a two-speed financial world . To the rich – cheap loans and easy money. But the global majority – the countries that need financing for development – are paying sky high costs to borrow money.”

The millstone of debt is drowning SIDS economies as the ocean erode the shore: “This is creating a vicious cycle of stress and vulnerability and constraining your ability to invest in the SDGs.”

He highlighted the need for an SDG Stimulus and deep reforms to the “outdated, dysfunctional and unjust global financial architecture” , putting the needs of developing countries first.  

‘Almighty noise’

He said the temptation to turn inwards, and lower expectations must be avoided. 

“That is not the SIDS way.  Collaboration and mutual support will help SIDS to weather both geopolitical and physical storms.”

And when you speak together, SIDS can make an almighty noise . I urge you to do so at this critical time for our planet and our future.”

Imperative to ‘act now’ and limit global warming

Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne has just been elected to preside over SIDS4.

He said SIDS vulnerabilities placed them at a major disadvantage and large scale polluters should compensate countries for their exploitation. 

The relentless climate crisis has severely undermined efforts to meet the SDGs, making the search for solutions all the more critical he said. 

This year has been the hottest in history practically everywhere, underscoring the urgency of our predicament, he added.

" To ignore this is to gamble with our collective future . Continuing with business as usual is not just negligence, it is an active choice that invites disaster. Such indifference will reverberate disastrously affecting every nation, every community and every individual across the planet."

Putting profits over sustainability must end he said, calling for a global carbon tax to be levied on hugely profitable oil companies. "Failing to act will dictate the fate of SIDS...It is imperative that we act now, not tomorrow but today, with conviction and with unyielding resolve."

'Your future is our future': King Charles

The SIDS4 conference is ALMOST formally underway. and there's a special message from King Charles, Head of State of Antigua and Barbuda.

In a video played to delegates, the monarch said that over decades, he has seen for himself the critical challenges faced by SIDS and how they can multiply to a horrifying degree.

He said he had been in awe of the climate action leadership shown by SIDS, which has been crucial to fight climate change during the 2015 Paris Agreement negotiations and beyond.

"However, I hardly need to tell you of all people that there is much further to go ", to build new partnerships and make sustainable development a reality, he said.

"The issues before you could hardly be more important. Your future is our future...ultimately all of us need bold and determined action ."

Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne was the last speaker in the cultural segment, in a video clip from the UN General Assembly, appealing for more support for SIDS in the light of corrosive climate change.

Now it's a performance of pure joy, showcasing some of the great attractions of this jewel of the Caribbean. "Show me how much you're loving Antigua and Barbuda so far!", is the cry from the stage. It's a loud and celebratory welcome to islanders from across the world. 

It's been quite a show: dancing, singing, dramatic video of beauty and human suffering due to climate change - and the spectre of natural disaster in the form of hurricanes that Antigua and Barbuda knows about only too well, having suffered through Irma and Maria in 2017 .

We were just treated to a performance from the Antigua and Barbuda Youth Symphony Orchestra. Now it's a theatrical performance focused on the dangers of climate change for the vulnerable nations gathered in the hall. We have trees, tropical sounds and a warning that the ecosystem is way off balance..."We must give the youth of these nations a chance", Mother Nature is saying:

"What affects small island States, affects us all. Respect all of nature or everything you know will soon disappear!"

08:45 AM - It all gets going in a few minutes’ time with a cultural opening event. Luckily the sun is shining this morning, in comparison with yesterday’s debilitating rain storms that reminded everyone here of the unpredictability of increasingly extreme weather that will be one of the chief talking points this week.

You can find full coverage of the entire week and special features leading up to the conference, on our landing page here .

'Resilient prosperity'

More than 20 world leaders, together with representatives from the private sector, civil society, academia and youth – close to 4,000 participants in all - have gathered at the verdant conference venue in the American University of Antigua close to the capital St John’s, to tackle critical issues impacting the future of SIDS. 

Under the theme Charting the course toward resilient prosperity , the four-day Conference (27-30 May) will showcase new innovations and develop practical solutions to address critical SIDS-specific challenges driven by the climate emergency, spiralling debt and health crises. 

For more on the conference, check out our curtain raiser story here . UN News was at one of the high level events over the weekend organized by more than 80 young changemakers from across the globe and you can check out their demand for action here .

The Conference will adopt  The Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS) – a Renewed Declaration for Resilient Prosperity , which sets out the sustainable development aspirations of small islands over the next decade and the support required from the international community to achieve them.

The SIDS across the Pacific, Caribbean and Atlantic, Indian Ocean and South China Sea are home to approximately 65 million people . They manage 19.1 per cent of the world's Exclusive Economic Zones and the resources they hold.

Accounting for 14 per cent of the world’s coastlines, SIDS boast a high degree of biodiversity . SIDS have pioneered renewable energy solutions, championed sustainable tourism while spearheading conservation efforts and making major strides in developing ocean-based economies. 

• Get involved

Remarks by Ms Kanni Wignaraja at the SDG Impact Conference “Transitioning to net-positive”

May 23, 2024.

UNDP Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, Kanni Wignaraja, delivered a keynote speech at the SDG Impact Conference “Transitioning to net-positive” in Beijing, China.

Dr. Ma Jun, Diana, my UNDP colleagues, distinguished guests,   Good morning.   In the Asia Pacific region, we are a staggering 32 years behind schedule on achieving the SDGs, with Goal 13, climate action, even regressing.[i] For some countries in our region, this is not abstract, for it means disappearing into the ocean!   So, we cannot afford any SDG complacency and least of all climate complacency.   Between 2000 and 2023, over 1600 floods devastated this region, killing more than 88,000 people, and impacting 1.6 billion. They represent 91 percent of all people affected by severe flooding globally. Flash floods in countries like Afganistan are now common place.   Counting the economic losses it is a staggering 452 billion dollars.[ii]   We need to move faster!   By 2050, this region risks losing one third of its GDP to climate change.[iii] And with over 4.3 billion people living in this region and dependent on growing sustainable economies, this means climate investments are needed at greater speed and scale.    As it currently stands, the Asia Pacific region faces a significant shortfall in climate financing: at least 800 billion dollars annually.[iv]  This conversation is focused on tried and potential solutions that can accelerate financing for this region's low carbon transitions.   With public finances depleted by the COVID-19 pandemic and other simultaneous shocks, we all know it will take the unleashing and directing of more private capital for this cause. Public finance, both domestic and international, must still play that critical role to incentivize, de-risk and hence leverage private finance.   Dr Ma spoke to setting up a green finance system and not a single product – so true!   What makes the case? Globally, nature-positive solutions can create an annual 10-trillion-dollar investment opportunity and close to 400 million new jobs by 2030.[v] Among these opportunities, the vast majority sit in Asia. China leads the change as we heard. The scale here is extraordinary and it will drive the new directions.  

"The growing evidence and the math seems clear: green investments support not only people and planet, but also, prosperity. However, turning these massive hard-to-abate sectors and huge business and political interests, will take more than doing the math. It will take financing of these transitions."

The growing evidence and the math seems clear: green investments support not only people and planet, but also, prosperity. However, turning these massive hard-to-abate sectors and huge business and political interests, will take more than doing the math. It will take financing of these transitions.   Encouragingly, some key countries and investors around the world are catching on. Globally, ESG assets are expected to surpass 33.9 trillion dollars by 2026, representing over one-fifth of total assets under management.[vi]   I would also say we have to go well beyond measuring ESG to investing in SDG impact and transition financing.   Four areas of UNDP support currently underway with several countries in the region are as follows:   -       Through initiatives like our “Unlocking Private Capital” program and our Sustainable Finance Hub, we support the design of SDG-aligned investment projects, and sustainable debt instruments. You have seen the take off of Green and Blue Bonds in this region, and hopefully the rates and terms get better and better, so countries benefit more from a green/blue premium.   -       UNDP has developed the SDG Impact Standards, helping businesses and investors worldwide to better incorporate sustainability, the SDGs, and impact management. Our Standards move beyond managing ESG risks, to making a net-positive contribution.    -       We have developed SDG Investor Maps highlighting SDG investment opportunity areas in over 40 countries. These are now used by investors in formulating their investment strategies.   -       We work with Securities & Exchange Commissions to develop SDG measures and guidance for their  Listed Companies and provide a dedicated platform to track and report on their contributions to the SDGs.   Many of these global initiatives have also been piloted in China. This includes a successful initiative with the New Development Bank supporting the issuance a 5 billion RMB SDG bond on China’s inter-bank market in 2021.   We also worked with the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors (NAFMII) in China and provided technical assistance to initiate their first trials of social and sustainability bonds.   Through UNDP's flagship Biodiversity Finance Initiative and support to the Taskforce on Nature Related Financial Disclosure in over 40 countries, we're working to redirect both public and private finance towards activities with nature-positive outcomes. The governments of Shandong and Shanghai have joined us, generating lessons and innovative approaches to advance biodiversity finance around the world.   And globally, through the G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group, UNDP is actively working with countries to develop a set of principles on transition finance.   Later today we will launch our report on “Financing Climate Transition in China’s Agri-food System: Mitigation, Adaptation, and Justice”, in collaboration with the Macro and Green Finance Lab of Peking University’s National School of Development and the Climate Bond Initiative.   Our analysis zooms in on opportunities and challenges of transition in agriculture -- a hard-to-abate sector with the least evidence-based research available - towards net-zero paradigms. We explore financial mechanisms and policy incentives to support the transition, along with growth opportunities, so together they can guide stakeholders to invest at scale.   For our private sector partners, the business case is clear: hundreds of studies have proven that addressing sustainability boosts competitiveness and market share. And -- if done properly -- can also improve financial performance and risk resilience.   Let me emphasize two challenges or uncomfortable facts here as I end.   First, much of the finance that goes to climate financing today comes as loans at market rates, costing developing countries heavily.   Second, these transitions need strong political and social buy-in, to deliver prosperity to all. We emphasize “just” transitions to ensure that existing inequalities are not exacerbated, but rather addressed, in designing new systemic solutions that combat negative effects on the poorest and vulnerable in terms of their livelihoods, food security and human development opportunities. If not, we leave more people behind.   So, it goes without saying that these transitions cannot take place without the adequate governance mechanisms and institutional and people capabilities to make it happen.   I close by thanking our co-hosts of today’s conference, ASIFMA, the Macro and Green Finance Lab of Peking University, and the Climate Bond Initiative. This shows the shared commitment to this cause.   And thank you to all the panelists and participants for sharing your ideas with us, and I look forward to the results of our discussions.   Thank you.  

[i] Asia and the Pacific SDG progress report 2024 : showcasing transformative actions | ESCAP (unescap.org) [ii] People and Planet: Addressing the Interlinked Challenges of Climate Change, Poverty and Hunger in Asia and the Pacific | United Nations Development Programme (undp.org) [iii] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/02/why-public-private-philanthropic-partnerships-are-central-in-asia-pacifics-climate-action/ [iv] Explainer: How Asia Can Unlock $800 Billion of Climate Financing (imf.org) [v] WEF_The_Future_Of_Nature_And_Business_2020.pdf (weforum.org) [vi] Asset and wealth management revolution 2022: Exponential expectations for ESG (pwc.com)  

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