Wars in Gaza and Ukraine but also “war against nature”: “our world is entering an era of chaos”which requires critical reforms, the UN secretary-general warned today, deploring unprecedented divisions in the Security Council.

“Governments ignore and undermine the very principles of multilateralism,” without any accountability. The Security Council, a major tool for world peace, is deadlocked due to geopolitical fissures,” said Antonio Guterres presenting before the General Assembly his priorities for 2024.

“It is not the first time that the Council is divided. But this is the worst. The current dysfunction is deeper and more dangerous.” Therefore, during the Cold War, well-established mechanisms helped manage relations between the superpowers,” he noted. But “in today’s multipolar world, such mechanisms are absent. Our world is entering an era of chaos.”

And “we see the results: a dangerous and unpredictable merciless competition, in absolute impunity,” the secretary-general complained, worrying about the development of “new means of mutual slaughter and also the self-destruction of humanity itself.”

Referring specifically in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, Antonio Guterres warned of a possible Israeli ground attack on Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians crowd the southern Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt. “Such action could exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare, with incalculable regional consequences,” he insisted, once again calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” and the release of the hostages.

Priorities climate and artificial intelligence

From Gaza to Ukraine, from Sudan to the Democratic Republic of Congo, from Yemen to Myanmar, “along with the proliferation of conflicts, global humanitarian needs are at record levels but funding is not keeping up,” said former Prime Minister of Portugal.

“There is so much anger and hate and noise in the world today. Every day, and at the slightest opportunity, is like a war (…). Wars of words. Wars for territories. Wars of civilizations,” he emphasized.

In this context, Antonio Guterres encouraged governments to seize the opportunity of the “Summit of the Future” to be held in September in New York on the sidelines of the General Assembly to “shape multilateralism for the coming years”.

Among the changes “the world really needs”, Guterres reiterated his call for major reforms of the Security Council, the international financial system and the creation of an “emergency tool to improve international responses to complex global crises” such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

Also once again at the top of his priorities for 2024 is the fight against climate change. “The climate crisis remains the defining challenge of our time,” the secretary-general stressed, calling on states to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and finance aid to the poorest countries.

“Humanity has started a war that we cannot help but lose: our war against nature,” he insisted.

“We are blowing up the systems that keep us alive: spewing emissions that tear apart our climate, poisoning the land, sea and air with pollution and decimating biodiversity, causing ecosystems to collapse.”

He also called for “adequate safeguards and ethical standards” to be applied to the rapid development of artificial intelligence tools.

“Artificial intelligence already creates risks related to misinformation, privacy, bias. Artificial intelligence will affect all of humanity, so we need a universal approach.”