The United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, on Monday, pledged to make 2023 “a year for peace” and a “year for action”, highlighting the need for practical solutions to a raft of pressing problems facing all regions of the world.
Guterres who made the pledge at the end of year press conference at UN Headquarters said, “We owe it to people to find solutions, to fight back, and to act”.
Building on his general call to action, Guterres announced that he would convene a Climate Ambition Summit in September 2023, and called on every leader to “step up – from governments, business, cities and regions, civil society and finance.”
He said it would be “a no-nonsense summit. No exceptions. No compromises. There will be no room for back-sliders, greenwashers, blame-shifters or repackaging of announcements of previous years.”
The UN chief said it would be convened alongside a General Assembly opening-week summit already in the calendar, designed to accelerate action at the halfway point towards the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals.
He said that although there might be “plenty of reasons for despair”, amid the Ukraine war, and associated cost-of-living crisis leaving the poorest nations on “debt row”, that was not an option.
“This is not a time to sit on the sidelines, it is a time for resolve, determination, and – yes – even hope.
