Leaders of several countries are scheduled to speak, in person and on screen, on the second day of the UN General Assembly’s annual high-level meeting with racism, climate crisis, and worsening divisions among nations and cultures top on the agenda.
Leaders from developing countries, including many from Africa, are expected to call for more access to vaccines against Covid-19 and greater funding to tackle the climate crisis on Wednesday.
Leaders of UK, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Jordan, and Ukraine are among those to speak.
Climate crisis ‘no longer a warning situation’
In his speech on Wednesday, Zeljko Komsic, Chairman of Bosnia and Herzegovina presidency told UNGA that the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the world and that the climate crisis is no longer a warning situation.
Komsic raised several issues at the UNGA meeting, including brain drain affecting sustainability in his country.
On Tuesday, the United Nations chief warned global leaders that the world has never been more threatened and divided and “we face the greatest cascade of crises in our lifetime.”
Secretary General Antonio Guterres rang the alarm in his annual state of the world speech before leaders and diplomats of UNGA’s 193 member nations.
“We are on the edge of an abyss — and moving in the wrong direction,” he said.
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