United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres briefs reporters ahead of the Summit of the Future, at the UN headquarters in New York, on Sept. 18, 2024. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a spirit of compromise at the upcoming Summit of the Future, saying that discussions on the outcome of the summit "are in the final stretch." (Mark Garten/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a spirit of compromise at the upcoming Summit of the Future, saying that discussions on the outcome of the summit "are in the final stretch."
Speaking to reporters at the UN headquarters in New York for the two-day summit, scheduled to open on Sunday, Guterres said he has "one overriding message today: an appeal to member states for a spirit of compromise."
"Show the world what we can do, when we work together," said the UN chief.
He noted that the summit is critical as it "was born out of a cold, hard fact: international challenges are moving faster than our ability to solve them," pointing to out-of-control geopolitical divisions and runaway conflicts, in addition to "runaway" climate change, inequalities and debt, and development of new technologies like artificial intelligence that lack guidance or guardrails.
"And our institutions simply can't keep up," Guterres warned.
Underscoring that crises are interacting and feeding off each other, and global institutions and frameworks are totally inadequate to deal with these complex and even existential challenges, he said it is no great surprise as those institutions "were born in a bygone era for a bygone world."
"So many of the challenges that we face today were not on the radar 80 years ago when our multilateral institutions were born," he pointed out.
The institutions must draw on the expertise and representation of all of humanity, said the UN chief.
The Summit of the Future is an essential first step towards making global institutions more legitimate, effective, and fit for the world of today and tomorrow, he stressed.
Urging UN member states to seize the opportunity, Guterres expressed the hope that they will do everything possible to get the Pact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations "over the finish line."
"We can't create a future fit for our grandchildren with systems built for our grandparents," he said.
More than 130 heads of state and government are scheduled to attend the Summit of the Future, which is taking place on Sunday and Monday, just ahead of the annual debate in the UN General Assembly. ■
