Our thinking

Uniting nations?

27 September, 2024

It’s been a busy week in New York as leaders gather to tackle some of humanity’s most pressing issues, at the United Nations General Assembly and at Climate Week NYC. 

And against a backdrop of myriad challenges – geopolitical tensions, more conflicts than at any time since 1945, rapidly escalating climate and nature crises – there’s plenty to do. But specifically for the UN, progress on the SDGs is stalling even as time runs short and trust in multilateralism faltering. It needs some revitalising to get the ambition and energy to take on these challenges effectively. 

That’s exactly what the UN’s Summit of the Future this week set out to achieve. It has gathered world leaders to forge a new international consensus on how to “deliver a better present and safeguard the future”. The outputs include a Pact for the Future and a Declaration on Future Generations, listing actions, principles and objectives across peace and security, sustainable finance and global governance. 

Inevitably it’s hard to get alignment on the terms and power balance of international governance. There have been issues with Russian opposition to aspirations around gender empowerment, while the Global North has been trying to hold on to influence over global economic governance. 

Will anything change? We don’t know. But the issues we face are bigger than individual countries, geographies and ideologies. We hope that bringing governments, businesses and community groups together to take stock and work out the specific actions provides a clear and energising push in the right direction. 

By Patrick Bapty