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UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned on Monday that the world is facing a convergence of challenges “unlike any in our lifetimes.”
He pointed to the war in Ukraine, “runaway climate catastrophe, rising nuclear threats,” the widening gulf between the world’s haves and have-nots and the “epic geopolitical divisions” undermining “global solidarity and trust.”
In a wide-ranging address Mr Guterres urged the general assembly’s 193 member nations to change their mindset on decision-making from near-term thinking, which he called “irresponsible” and “immoral,” to looking “at what will happen to all of us tomorrow — and act.”
“I fear the world is now sleepwalking into a wider war. It is doing so with its eyes wide open,” he said.
Mr Guterres also said that it is time for nuclear-armed countries to renounce the first use of all nuclear weapons, including tactical nuclear weapons.
“The so-called ‘tactical’ use of nuclear weapons is absurd,” he said. “We are at the highest risk in decades of a nuclear war that could start by accident or design.”
Of declared nuclear weapons states only China has a no-first-strike policy.
