The 76th session of the UN General Assembly ended on yesterday, September 27, 2021. The UN General Assembly is the main policymaking organ of the United Nations.
Once again, world leaders gathered during a raging pandemic and an accelerating global climate crisis.
This time last year, an estimated 7 million were infected by SARS-Cov-2 and over 200,000 had died from Covid-19. Today, about 232 million have been infected and nearly 4.8 million have lost their lives to Covid-19.
The Sixth Assessment Report released by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change warns of more extreme droughts, flooding, heat waves and a key temperature limit being breached in just over a decade.
A new United Nations report on 191 countries’ emission promises revealed they would not meet the agreement to limit human induced warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures. Instead, we are on a calamitous path to 2.7 C of heating. The overall goal is to have “net-zero” carbon emissions by the middle of the 21st century and we are not on course.
Somehow, we are adept at defining the problem and providing a prognosis. According to US President Joe Biden, the world is “fast approaching the point of no return”. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson believes this is a turning point for humanity.
UN secretary general António Guterres believes the world is “on the edge of an abyss and moving in the wrong direction”. In her maiden speech Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu reminded the world that “unilateralism will not get us anywhere when it comes to challenges that transcend our national boundaries”.
As Boris Johnson put it; the “adolescence of humanity” is over and it is time to “grow up”.
But we need more than moral outrage. We need consensus backed up by concerted global grown-up actions.
Rich and not so rich countries must collectively step up the commitment to significant carbon dioxide reductions to achieve carbon neutrality by the middle of the century. For low- and middle-income countries, there is no such thing as polluting our way to prosperity. We must commit to a green growth pathway.
The United Kingdom is committed to set in law the world’s most ambitious climate change target; cutting emissions by 78 per cent by 2035 compared to 1990 levels.
Similarly, the US is committed to achieve a 50-52 per cent reduction from 2005 levels. China’s President Xi Jinping pledged to stop funding coal plants abroad. As the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, China’s climate actions are critical to the planet’s net-zero future.
Ending the devastation wrought to the lives and livelihoods by the Covid-19 pandemic is gravely urgent. Covid-19 anywhere poses a threat everywhere. With just about three percent of its population vaccinated, Africa presents a veritable global health security risk.
As articulated by Biden, the world must rally on the following principles; donating, not selling vaccines to low- and lower-income countries, support Covax as the main distributor for approved vaccines and, directing resources to counter vaccine hesitancy and disinformation.
