Extra efforts required to address global fragilities exposed by COVID: UN Secy General

NEW YORK: Antonio Guterres, Secretary General, United Nations (UN), on Wednesday, September 16, urged for extra efforts to deal with the global fragilities that have been exposed by the deadly coronavirus. Guterres said that even before the pandemic had begun, the world was veering far off course in an attempt to eliminate poverty, meet Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and was losing the battle against climate change. He added that in 2020, the concentrations of greenhouse gas reached new levels and hottest ever summer was experienced in Northern Hemisphere.

Guterres emphasized that to get on track and tame the fires, recovery is the only way out as the world is burning. The recovery must be in alignment with the SDGs and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, UN Chief said. He added that the recovery must be green and bailing out polluting industries and subsidizing fossil fuels would mean locking in bad patterns for decades to come. He laid stress upon recovery stating that it must promote gender equality and would require effective multilateralism as well.