In a press conference this week, as the annual U.N. General Assembly began in New York City, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pointed to wars, poverty, hunger, and what he described as 'climate chaos.'
"A time of great peril."
He called for solidarity and cooperation, even while acknowledging that the global response to all these challenges seems"paralyzed."to discuss five things going on in the world right now that he is worried about: fighting near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power; fertilizer availability; Europe's energy crisis; Russia's invasion of Ukraine; and the climate crisis.
And this is having a dramatic impact in West Africa, for instance. We have concrete data that farmers are already planning to farm less than the land available because of the fertilizer price and its availability.This is an area where we have no capacity. Let's be frank, energy is something that is dealt with by a number of very powerful countries and a number of very powerful companies. And the influence of the United Nations there is much more reduced.