Beyond September After The Summit Of The Future

Leo Migdal

-Dec 3, 2025, 6:25 AM

beyond september after the summit of the future

Saturday, 12 October 2024 00:10 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} Opening of the Summit of the Future by the UN Secretary-General – Credits: UN Photo/Loey Felipe The global community stands at a critical juncture, as countries around the world are facing escalating climate impacts, environmental challenges, economic disparities, and the need for sustainable development. After the first overarching progress assessment under the Paris Agreement and the recent Summit of the Future, are we steering the correct course? With the end of this decade rapidly approaching, there is an urgent need to develop a vision for the future that goes beyond 2030 and unifies climate action, sustainable development, and a reconfiguration of... The Summit of the Future After years of preparation, the United Nations’ Summit of the Future took place last month from 22 to 23 September 2024.

Billed as a once-in-a-generation high-level event, the Summit brought together world leaders and non-governmental actors in New York City to adopt a Pact for the Future, including a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration... This Pact aims to update global governance for the realities of today and the challenges of tomorrow, building on the United Nations Secretary-General’s statement that “we cannot create a future fit for our grandchildren... Youth and future generations are highlighted as key actors and stakeholders, and a Global Digital Compact is annexed as “the first comprehensive global framework for digital cooperation and AI governance.” As an overarching commitment,... Under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the SDGs are supposed to be achieved by 2030, a process that is supposed to be accelerated during the “Decade of Action” from 2020 to 2030. Similarly, implementation of the Paris Agreement has begun in 2020, with Parties due to update their respective contributions (the Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs) by early 2025, ahead of the global climate change conference... These NDCs should be informed by the first Global Stocktake, an assessment of the state of global climate action that was finalised and adopted by all Parties at the end of 2023.

Both the Pact for the Future and the Global Stocktake highlight the “current slow pace of progress in addressing climate change” and find that the world is “not yet collectively on track towards achieving... Climate-vulnerable developing countries, including Sri Lanka, are at the forefront of climate change and exposed to some of the most direct and dangerous impacts. At the same time, they are often facing increasing macroeconomic challenges, constraints, and debt distress, further limiting their fiscal space and the ability to engage in long-term planning. The current global financial architecture has been criticised for its inadequacies in addressing these issues, and. There is a growing call to restructure this architecture to be more equitable and supportive of sustainable development, aligning with principles of climate justice and international cooperation. Both the Global Stocktake and the Pact for the Future take up this call for accelerated financial system reform to meet the urgent challenge of climate change, allow countries to borrow sustainably for their...

Changing systems and the need for transformation How can we envision the future of global climate action and sustainable development, and what does that mean for developing countries such as Sri Lanka? The SDGs and the Paris Agreement have been pivotal in shaping global efforts toward sustainability and climate action: but the SDG target year of 2030 is approaching quickly, and more ambitious action is required... Foresight-driven planning involves anticipating future challenges and opportunities, enabling policymakers to develop proactive and effective strategies while accounting for uncertainties and emerging risks. In this context, concepts such as transformative adaptation or long-term resilience are gaining prominence, although it remains ambiguous how exactly to define and operationalise them. Fostering transformative adaptation and long-term resilience requires systemic and whole-of-society approaches. Implementing individual actions or technologies—for example, building flood defences or shifting to renewable energies—is important, but there is also a need for a deeper systemic change that considers all actors across the various value...

These approaches would go beyond incremental adjustments and seek to alter the underlying social, economic, and environmental frameworks to address root causes of vulnerability and empower systems and institutions to dynamically respond to the... (The writer works as Director: Research & Knowledge Management at SLYCAN Trust, a non-profit think tank based in Sri Lanka. His work focuses on climate change, adaptation, resilience, ecosystem conservation, just transition, human mobility, and a range of related issues. He holds a Master’s degree in Education from the University of Cologne, Germany and is a regular contributor to several international and local media outlets.) All the content on this website is copyright protected and can be reproduced only by giving the due courtesy to 'ft.lk' Copyright � 2004 Wijeya Newspapers Ltd. The 2025 UN climate talks wrapped on Saturday, Nov.

22 after negotiations pushed into overtime. The resulting decision secured some important wins, both inside and outside the negotiations. But it omitted some of the big-ticket items many hoped to see. With efforts to halt temperature rise severely off track and climate disasters becoming ever-more destructive, the summit (COP30) aimed to establish clear pathways to deliver past pledges and put the world on a safer... A key question was how countries would address lagging ambition in their new climate commitments (NDCs). Hopes that countries would commit to roadmaps to end fossil fuel use and halt deforestation were ultimately dashed after opposition from petrostates.

The final decision only included new voluntary initiatives to accelerate national climate action, though the Brazilian Presidency intends to move forward with fossil fuel and deforestation roadmaps outside of the formal COP talks. Building resilience to climate impacts took center stage, with COP30 securing a new target to triple finance for climate adaptation. The COP also laid out practical solutions to increase finance for the low-carbon transition. In an era of trade wars and tariffs, negotiators also agreed for the first time to hold discussions on how trade policies can help — or hinder — climate action. Against the backdrop of the Amazon, nature also saw advances, including a new fund for tropical forest conservation. Indigenous Peoples and other local communities were recognized like never before.

And outside the formal negotiations, the summit saw a raft of new pledges and action plans from cities, states, countries and the private sector. It is clear that we are moving from negotiations to implementation, and from wrangling over what to do to how to do it. These victories matter. It shows that international cooperation can still deliver, despite deepening divides on climate action and a difficult geopolitical context. Many saw the UN Summit of the Future as the moment of truth for the United Nations and its plans for the world. Joris Larik, Assistant Professor of Comparative, EU and International Law, explains the results.

War, inequality, poverty, climate change: the world faces pressing problems that call for good global cooperation and agreements. With the eyes of the international community turned to the UN, will it ever manage to take the lead and bring about positive change? Sunday 22 and Monday 23 September were an important litmus test: the UN Summit of the Future in New York Joris Larik specialises in global governance and EU external relations law. He is also a co-founder of the Global Governance Innovation Network (GGIN). He and researchers from the US think tank Stimson Center wrote a report and policy recommendations for the summit.

‘This Summit of the Future was the culmination of a process that has been underway for four years, a moment of truth for the United Nations and global governance. That process began in 2020 with the UN’s 75th Anniversary Declaration, followed a year later by the “Our Common Agenda” report, in which Secretary-General António Guterres came with concrete proposals for making the world... A bold move. ‘At the Summit of the Future this year, the 193 UN member states had to flesh out these proposals into a plan, a kind of roadmap for the future of the international community: the... Mind you, this is a political document and not an international treaty.’ A voluntary plan to curb fossil fuels, a goal to triple adaptation finance and new efforts to “strengthen” climate targets have been launched at the COP30 climate summit in Brazil.

After all-night negotiations in the Amazonian city of Belém, the Brazilian presidency released a final package termed the “global mutirão” – a name meaning “collective efforts”. It was an attempt to draw together controversial issues that had divided the fortnight of talks, including finance, trade policies and meeting the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C temperature goal. A “mechanism” to help ensure a “just transition” globally and a set of measures to track climate-adaptation efforts were also among COP30’s notable outcomes. Scores of nations that had backed plans to “transition away” from fossil fuels and “reverse deforestation” instead accepted COP30 president André Corrêa do Lago’s compromise proposal of “roadmaps” outside the formal UN regime. The 2024 Summit of the Future. What to Expect Now and After

The Summit of the Future (SOTF) was proposed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to forge a new consensus on managing current interdependence and improving international collaboration. Scheduled for September 22-23 this year in New York City, the Summit aims to address critical global challenges and secure a viable future for coming generations. Despite its ambitious objectives, the SOTF will occur against a backdrop of heightened geopolitical tensions and a challenging environment for international agreements. This contrasts with the plethora of innovative ideas and debate emerging from civil society on reforming multilateralism. While expectations for concrete outcomes have been tempered, the SOTF provides a valuable opportunity to showcase fresh thinking on global governance reform. This paper argues that, rather than a disappointing finish line, the SOTF could serve as a starting point for charting a way forward.

It has the potential to rally attention and political will to upgrade 20th-century international governance structures for 21st-century realities. At the Summit of the Future on 22 September 2024, world leaders adopted the Pact for the Future and its annexes: the Global Digital Compact and Declaration on Future Generations. This historic agreement is the culmination of years of inclusive dialogue and collaboration aimed at modernizing international cooperation to address today’s realities and prepare for tomorrow’s challenges. The Pact for the Future is the most comprehensive international agreement in decades, covering entirely new areas while also resolving issues that have long stalled consensus. Its primary objective is to ensure that international institutions are equipped to navigate a world vastly different from the one in which they were created. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres observed, “We cannot create a future fit for our grandchildren with a system built by our grandparents.”

The Pact reaffirms global commitment to the United Nations, the international system, and the principles of international law. It envisions a world where the international system delivers on its promises, reflects the diversity of today’s global landscape, and leverages the collective strength of governments, civil society, and other key partners. “The Pact for the Future, together with the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations, unlocks new opportunities and untapped potential,” said Secretary-General Guterres during the Summit of the Future. The President of the General Assembly hailed the Pact as a foundation for “a sustainable, just, and peaceful global order – for all peoples and nations.” The Pact addresses a wide array of critical global issues, with commitments to:

Beyond September After The Summit Of The Future

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