New York City January 22 ANI UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres raised five alarms for the world for 2022 and urged countries to make a new, more hopeful and equal path when the only certainty is more uncertainty. The raging COVID-19 pandemic, the lawlessness in cyberspace and a diminished peace and security are some of the issues that need to be addressed, he said.
He stressed that countries must go into emergency mode and now is the time to act as the response will determine global outcomes for decades ahead, according to UN News.
Guterres said that countries must go into emergency mode in order to stop the spread of coronaviruses. Guterres was particularly blunt about the failure of the global financial system because of the pandemic. Let's tell it like it is: the global financial system is morally bankrupt. It favors the rich and punishes the poor. The system is supposed to ensure stability by supporting economies through financial shocks, such as the Pandemic, but he said that the lopsided investment is leading to lopsided recovery from the crisis.
Poorer countries are experiencing their slowest growth in a generation, while middle-income nations are denied debt relief despite surging poverty levels. Most of the world's poor are women and girls, who are paying a high price in lost healthcare, education and jobs, the UN chief said.
There is a recipe for instability, crisis and forced migration due to the divergence between developed and developing countries. He said that these imbalances are not a bug, but a feature of the global financial system.
There is no choice but for the Secretary-General, countries have no choice but to go into emergency mode against the climate crisis. The world is off-track in limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, as outlined in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
By the end of the decade, global emissions need to be reduced by 45 per cent to reach carbon neutrality by the end of the decade, which requires an avalanche of action in 2022.
He said that all developing countries that are major emitters must do more, and much faster, taking into account common but differing responsibilities.
Guterres warned that digital chaos is benefiting the most destructive forces and denying opportunities for ordinary people, despite the fact that technology offers extraordinary possibilities for humanity. He said that it was necessary to expand internet access to the nearly three billion people who are still offline, and address risks such as data misuse, misinformation and cyber-crime.
Our personal information is being exploited to control or manipulate us, change our behaviours, violate our human rights, and undermine democratic institutions. Our choices are taken away from us without us knowing it, he was quoted as saying by UN News.