Advertisement

Antonio Guterres calls for multilateral cooperation for climate, AI, political challenges

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for global cooperation to combat climate change, manage artificial intelligence and end wars in a speech at the World Economic Forum Wednesday. Photo by Gian Ehrenzeller/EPA-EFE
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for global cooperation to combat climate change, manage artificial intelligence and end wars in a speech at the World Economic Forum Wednesday. Photo by Gian Ehrenzeller/EPA-EFE

Jan. 17 (UPI) -- The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that world leaders are failing the muster the political will needed to tackle the big global issues presented by climate change, artificial intelligence and war.

Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, his message was a mixture of scolding criticism along with hope that it is not too late to tackle the planet's most challenging crises.

Advertisement

He criticized leaders for not showing enough commitment to lowering greenhouse gases to prevent further global warning and to rein in the dangers of AI despite all of its potential benefits.

"We have not yet an effective global strategy to deal with either," Guterres said. "The reason is simple. Geopolitical divides are preventing us from coming together around global solutions and global challenges.

"Little wonder that people everywhere are losing faith in governments, institutions and financial and economic systems."

He pointed to the rapid melting of ice sheets in Antarctica and glaciers in Switzerland as evidence of global warming while fossil fuel companies in the United States start marketing campaigns to kneecap efforts to lower greenhouse emissions.

Advertisement

Guterres said the world's most powerful technology companies are swiftly moving ahead with AI technology without implementing safeguards to protect human life.

He noted that even in the era of the Cold War, the world was able to come together to mitigate challenging global risks, such as nuclear disarmament treaties and back-channel hotlines.

Now though, Guterres lamented, many of those safeguards have been undermined.

"Some analysts predict we are moving into a totally chaotic situation, in which geopolitical divides at all levels prevent any global response to global threats," he said.

Guterres said that he "strongly believes" it was possible to pull world leaders from the brink of a possible "disastrous scenario."

The secretary-general called for countries to work together to hammer out their differences and think about the larger global picture.

"The only way to manage this complexity and avoid a slide into chaos is through a reformed, inclusive, networked multilateralism," Guterres said. "Without them, further fragmentation is inevitable and the consequences are clear."

He pointed out Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the civil war and Sudan and the Israeli-Hamas wars as examples of an "epidemic of impunity around the world."

"We see some countries doing whatever it takes to further their own interests at all costs," Guterres said.

Advertisement

He called for immediate peace in Ukraine and a cease-fire in Gaza. Guterres also said tech companies need to put as much effort in bridging the tech divide between people as they are to AI and deepening it.

Latest Headlines