The Un Chief Summons World Leaders To Action But He Says They Seem

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrives to the SDG Summit at United Nations headquarters, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) FILE - President Joe Biden walks down the steps of Air Force One at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Sept. 17, 2023.

Biden is in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly and fundraisers. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi meets with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at U.N. headquarters Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa waits for Secretary of State Antony Blinken to arrive for a meeting, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, Pool) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to wounded Ukrainian soldiers during a visit at Staten Island University Hospital, in New York, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz, Pool)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Insisting that international cooperation is critical, the United Nations chief delivered a dire warning to leaders from across the world Tuesday, declaring that the planet is becoming unhinged with mounting... Addressing presidents and prime ministers, monarchs and ministers at the opening of the U.N. General Assembly’s high-level meeting, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ticked off a list of “existential threats” the world is facing, from climate change to disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence. “Our world is becoming unhinged. Geopolitical tensions are rising. Global challenges are mounting.

And we seem incapable of coming together to respond,” Guterres told the people who run the world’s nations. He said that the United Nations — and the ways that countries cooperate — must evolve to meet the era. “The world has changed. Our institutions have not,” Guterres said before the opening of the U.N. General Assembly’s General Debate. “We cannot effectively address problems as they are if institutions don’t reflect the world as it is.

Instead of solving problems, they risk becoming part of the problem.” All this is taking place. Guterres said, as the world is making a “chaotic transition” and rapidly moving from a brief period of “unipolarity” – domination by a single power, the United States – toward a multipolar world with... That is, he said, positive in many ways. This year’s U.N. climate summit, COP30, opened with a moment that should have set the tone for a new era.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declared it the “COP of Truth,” rooted in the Brazilian idea of Mutirão, a collective effort driven by solidarity. He urged leaders to deliver the concrete roadmaps the world urgently needs: a plan to overcome dependence on fossil fuels, a strategy to reverse deforestation, and a financing package that is fair and planned... He asked countries to choose multilateralism over isolationism, science over ideology, and action over fatalism. The world fell far short of that challenge. In a year of record heat, a landmark proposal backed by more than 80 countries for a global fossil-fuel transition roadmap was stripped from the final decision laying out the next steps for global... The summit, held in the Amazon city of Belém, ended without a deforestation roadmap.

And climate finance commitments remain far below what is required. To keep even a coin-flip chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C the world must cut emissions roughly 55% by 2035 compared to 2019 levels. Current national plans submitted within the COP process offer barely a fraction of that, putting the world on track for roughly 2.5°C of warming, an outcome no stable society or economy can tolerate. It is perhaps shocking, but not surprising. Over 1,600 fossil fuel lobbyists were accredited, roughly one in every 25 participants. If they were a country, these lobbyists would be the second largest delegation after host country Brazil.

A process that requires consensus among nearly 200 countries gives de facto blocking power to the least ambitious. And while the absence of the United States removed one source of obstruction, it also removed political weight. A more assertive bloc of petrostates filled that vacuum. Read more: The U.S. Is Ceding Climate Leadership to Authoritarian States President Joe Biden addressed the General Assembly for the final time as commander in chief this morning against the backdrop of a presidential race.

In his fourth and final address to the General Assembly, Biden said “we’re at another inflection point in world history.” Despite the escalating conflict in the Middle East, he said that a diplomatic solution is still possible and that Putin has “failed” in his invasion of Ukraine. In his first address to the General Assembly, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called out Israel for its operations in Gaza and Lebanon. "Israel’s state terrorism in Lebanon cannot go unanswered," he said this afternoon. "Responsibility for all consequences will be borne by those governments who have thwarted all global efforts to end this horrific catastrophe." Thanks to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, our readers are able to explore our archives from 1915 and connect to their heritage and past.

Discover the benefits of a subscription including access to exclusive content, events, and more! Visit our e-store for all your special occasion gifts. More items coming! UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Insisting that international cooperation is critical, the United Nations chief delivered a dire warning to leaders from across the world Tuesday, declaring that the planet is becoming unhinged with mounting... Addressing presidents and prime ministers, monarchs and ministers at the opening of the U.N. General Assembly’s high-level meeting, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ticked off a list of “existential threats” the world is facing, from climate change to disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence.

Deal reached at UN climate talks in Brazil spurs mixed reactions as climate campaigners say more action is needed The annual United Nations climate conference has ended with an agreement that urges action to address global warming, but falls short of endorsing a phase-out of fossil fuels. After two weeks of heated debates, meetings and negotiations at the COP30 summit in the Brazilian city of Belem, world leaders on Saturday agreed to a deal that calls for countries to “significantly accelerate... The text lays out a series of promises and measures – including a call for developed countries to triple their funding to help poorer nations respond to the crisis – but makes no mention... Dozens of states had been calling forthe COP30 deal to lay out a framework to ease away from their reliance on oil, gas and coal – the major drivers of the climate crisis –... Debris surrounds damaged homes along the Black River, Jamaica, Thursday, Oct.

30, 2025, in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File) U.N. General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock speaks during a plenary session at the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025, in Belem, Brazil.

(AP Photo/Fernando Llano) Boys stand next to the dried up Orontes River, the result of a drought following heat waves and a winter with very little precipitation, in Jisr al-Shughur, west of Idlib, Syria, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam, File) BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Harms from climate change are the biggest threat to world peace, the president of the United Nations General Assembly says. “To those who are arguing that in these times we have to focus more on peace and security, one can only say the climate crisis is the biggest security threat of our century,” General...

climate talks at the edge of the Amazon.

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