UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres gave a dramatic warning at the beginning of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, as he called on the international community to do more to combat the pandemic and climate change.
"I am here to sound the alarm: The world must wake up," Guterres said at the beginning of the 76th General Debate, in which leaders from around the world descend on New York to discuss the range of issues the world needs tackling.
"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."
Guterres described the gross inequalities in the global distribution of vaccines against Covid-19 as an obscenity. He pointed out that while most of the people in the richer part of the world had been vaccinated, some 90 per cent of Africans were still waiting for their first dose.
Guterres called this a moral indictment of the state of the world, adding that while the global community had passed succeeded in terms of science, it had failed on ethics.
He said nations were not supporting each other in the face of crises such as the pandemic and climate change. He berated the representatives, saying that instead of humility, there was presumption; rather than solidarity, destruction loomed.
But Guterres also said he still had hope, and that the problems were problems that humanity can solve.
Unlike last year, when many of the contributions to the general debate took the form of speeches sent on video, numerous leaders have flown to New York, although with far smaller delegations than before the pandemic.
Further events on Tuesday include Joe Biden's first speech as president of the United States, and speeches by leaders from Brazil, Iran, Turkey, France and Switzerland, among others.
Other contributions by representatives of the 193 member states will again be provided online.
Several events are also due to be held on the sidelines, including a high-level online summit on distributing vaccines against Covid-19 more fairly, which Biden is due to host on Wednesday.
Conflict, too, will be in focus, chiefly the situation in Afghanistan. The UN General Assembly runs through Monday.
