The world is in a “sorry state” because of myriad “interlinked” challenges including climate change and Russia’s war in Ukraine that are “piling up like cars in a chain reaction crash,” the UN chief said at his World Economic Forum address on Wednesday.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres delivered his gloomy message on the second day of sessions which bring world leaders and industry experts together at the Swiss ski resort of Davos.
Guterres said the “gravest levels of geopolitical division and mistrust in generations” are undermining efforts to tackle global problems, which also include widening inequality.
Critics have questioned the impact of the four-day forum where politicians, CEOs and other leaders discuss the world’s problems, and make deals on the sidelines, but where concrete action is harder to measure.
Environmentalists, for example, have slammed the carbon-spewing private jets that ferry in elites to an event that prioritises the battle against climate change.
What to expect today at the International Economic Forum in Davos:
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Olena Zelenska, the First Lady of Ukraine, is also due to sit down and have a conversation with host Mirek Dušek, the Managing Director, of the World Economic Forum in Geneva at 13.45 CET
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Olaf Scholz, the Chancellor of Germany, will give a special address at 15.45 CET
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, will give a special address at 17.00 CET
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Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s Secretary General and Andrzej Duda, the President of Poland, will join a discussion called Restoring Security and Peace at 17.15 CET.
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All this week Euronews’ Sasha Vakulina, Meabh McMahon, Fay Doulgkeri and David Walsh are on the ground in Davos and will be covering all the latest developments.