The coronavirus pandemic and climate crisis highlight the need to pursue global solutions to global challenges, former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has said.
The current crises of COVID-19 and climate change have highlighted the great need to pursue global solutions to the global challenges that we face. And such solutions must be underpinned by cooperation, partnership and solidarity,” he said in a video message at the World Peace Conference in Dhaka on Saturday.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to upend our economies, societies and way of life while climate change is rapidly worsening with super storms, extreme heat, flooding, fires and droughts, he said.
Great power tensions and regional conflicts are growing, hindering global cooperation when it is greatly needed, the former UN chief said. At the same time new technologies are altering how we communicate, live and work.
For sustainability, inclusion and the power of partnership and multilateral cooperation, he emphasised quick elevation of the efforts to accelerate global vaccination and the synergy of sustainable and inclusive recoveries to help end the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The spread of the omicron variant underlines this urgency. Now in this second year, The COVID-19 pandemic continues to alter our daily lives, communities and world,” Ban Ki-moon remarked.
“It is clear that recovery will be both prolonged and arduous, particularly as a vaccine inequity continues to extend the pandemic for so many.”
“To ensure that we recover swiftly, it is not enough to build back. We must build back cleaner, more sustainably and inclusively. To do so we need to ensure equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and go much further in the fight against the vaccine inequity, reports bdnews24.com.
“The facts over the matter remains that the global response has not only been too slow, It has been too unequal. This is the most pressing task ahead of us and one that can not only strengthen multilateral collaboration, but also set the stage for a more peaceful and Cooperative post-pandemic international order.
“Leaders have a moral and humanitarian obligation to fight vaccine inequality and urgently come together in solidarity to vaccinate the world and end this pandemic. We must remember no one is safe until everyone is safe.”
Ban Ki-moon said it is also vital world leaders make good on the promises made to both the humanity and our planet when they agreed to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals 2030 agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement.
“The ongoing pandemic has made it painfully clear that we need a new direction for all of humanity and our planet.”
