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No future ?
The war in Ukraine, the escalating conflict in the Middle East, unrest in the Sahel, the tensions between the United States and China, the race for artificial intelligence, the rise of populism, are all undermining the ability of nations to collaborate effectively to address the great challenges humanity is facing.
For a summer, the Olympic and Paralympic Games provided a powerful reminder of what a shared planet could look like. But the international community is fracturing from all sides. In this time of widespread mistrust, it is imperative to restore order to the planetary disorder at work, and to inspire confidence.
With this in mind, the United Nations is organizing the Summit of the Future in New York on September 22 and 23, on the margins of the 79th General Assembly.
The official program will include the adoption of a Pact for the Future and a Declaration for Future Generations, with the aim of launching a "new dawn for multilateralism". The aim is to re-mobilize the international community around the Sustainable Development Goals, the achievement of which is being undermined by the current polycrisis.
Ultimately, the summit aims to revitalize an international community that has been reduced to a community in name only. This is evidenced by the multiplication of issues of disagreement : the inability to reform the half-century-old international financial institutions, the debt burden faced by developing countries, the adoption of a tax on the "super-rich," the instrumentalization of the veto in the Security Council to resolve ongoing conflicts, and a clear lack of ambition to address the climate emergency and prepare for future pandemics.
At a time when billions are needed, an increasing number of donor countries, including France, are reducing their development aid in a general context of isolationism and cuts in public spending, widening the North-South divide.
Ultimately, this international chaos is claiming many victims, not least the most vulnerable populations and countries, the planet and, ultimately, future generations, whose prospects are becoming bleaker by the day.
And yet multilateralism has proved its worth and is the only possible option to ensure we meet the global challenges of today and tomorrow, and this perception is shared by our fellow citizens, as our recent opinion surveys show.
For the planet, for youth, for future generations, now is not the time for isolation….but for multilateral action !
The Summit of the Future will take place on September 22-23, 2024, in New York, on the margins of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly. This high-level event will bring together UN Member States, civil society organizations, the private sector, and youth. The goal is to remobilize the international community around a shared vision and renewed institutions to address major global challenges amidst widespread distrust among nations.
Ahead of the summit, on September 20-21, "Action Days" will focus on the well-being of youth and future generations, as well as three priority themes : digital technology, peace and security, and sustainable development and its financing.
The ability of nations to act together is being challenged beyond anything seen since the fall of the Berlin Wall by rising geopolitical tensions - the war in Ukraine, the resurgence of conflict in the Middle East, historic debt levels in developing countries, the growing rivalry between the United States and China, among others. These tensions are manifesting themselves in a widening "North-South" divide, making it increasingly difficult to reach international consensus on concrete measures to address major global challenges.
The international community is proving unable to live up to its responsibilities, undermining the foundation for a more just and environmentally responsible world, even as concerted global action is essential to address issues related to climate change, access to health, education, malnutrition, biodiversity protection, or development financing, and thus fulfill the 2030 Agenda.
Despite these challenges, the Summit of the Future aims to create momentum by promoting a revitalization of multilateralism.
In 2015, UN Member States adopted both an ambitious plan centered on 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030 and ratified the Paris Agreement on climate change. While each country retains sovereignty to implement public policies that contribute to these objectives, only ambitious multilateral action can bring us closer to these targets, especially in the most vulnerable countries.
However, at the current pace of progress, the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals is largely compromised. In its latest Sustainable Development Goals Report, the UN estimates that only 17% of the 169 SDG targets are likely to be met by 2030, 48% are progressing too slowly, and 35% are stagnating or regressing.
As for climate, global greenhouse gas emissions are not following a COP 21 path to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100.
The international community has failed to mobilize the necessary resources to confront the multiple crises underway and to reform international financial institutions while 712 million people live below the extreme poverty line (2022), 54 developing countries face debt distress, and the needs to address humanitarian crises are estimated at US$48.7 billion.
In 2024, for example, the 32 countries that make up the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee allocated only 0.37% of their gross national income (GNI) to official development assistance (ODA). This figure falls short of the 0.7% pledged in the 1970s to help the poorest countries. More alarmingly, 17 donor countries, including France, are decreasing their development assistance budgets compared to 2022, even as global needs continue to grow. After significantly increasing its financial support for international solidarity since 2017, France has postponed its ambition to allocate 0.7% of its GNI to ODA to 2030.
This "funding gap" for the most vulnerable countries is estimated at an accumulated $7 trillion dollars since 1970, reinforcing the mistrust of the "Global South" towards the "Global North". Same goes for the fight against climate change as high-income countries have yet to deliver on the $100 billion dollars promised to finance adaptation and mitigation measures for the most affected countries. Overall, an estimated $2.4 trillion per year by 2030 is needed to finance the transition towards clean-energy, climate change adaptation and investment in sustainable agriculture in developing countries.
At a time when many countries are tempted by nationalist isolationism and the prospects for financing the fight against poverty, inequalities and climate change are declining, recent history shows that many victories have been achieved through international cooperation.
These past victories demonstrate that coordinated collective action can deliver tangible results for the benefit of humankind : pandemic response has saved millions of lives, global initiatives are reducing maternal and child mortality, and agreements like the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement are uniting the world around common goals.
Although not widely known, the UN enjoys a high level of recognition among French citizens, who implicitly support the principle that multilateral cooperation is the "right level" of decision-making to address major global issues. 77% of French people believe that the United Nations and other international organizations can play a decisive role in reducing poverty.
However, this multilateral framework needs to be strengthened and renewed to deliver on the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals. This vision is widely shared by public opinion. In France, 64% of respondents agree or do not oppose the idea of increasing the power of UN organizations to solve the world’s major problems.
When asked which institutions could help resolve global economic and social crises or respond to climate emergencies, 38% of French people say the UN should be strengthened, 34% say the European Union, and 24% say national governments.
The experience of the COVID-19 pandemic showed that global issues such as health and climate change transcend borders. According to the majority of French citizens, it is through international cooperation that responses should be identified and implemented. In this respect, 34 % of those polled in France in October 2023 state that "the COVID-19 crisis shows the extent to which countries need to regain control of their sovereignty (borders, economy)", while 41 % felt that the same crisis "shows the extent to which countries need to strengthen international cooperation (Europe, UN...)".
Finally, nearly 50 % of those surveyed in France since 2019 say they are concerned about poverty in developing countries, while only 13 % say they are indifferent. The imperative of international solidarity, based on the transfer of wealth from high-income to low-income countries through ODA, has itself seen a positive evolution since 2013. Indeed, it is noteworthy that after a decline from 2022 onwards, due in particular to the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine, the percentage of French people in favor of maintaining or increasing ODA has recently started to rise again, from 47% in December 2013 to 57% in June 2024.
Whatever their geographical, social, economic and cultural realities, young people are and will be affected by the world’s challenges, whether in terms of climate change, environmental degradation, employment opportunities, or access to health and education. Yet the international community, too frequently mobilized by the multiple crises of the moment, has failed to consider the destiny of youth and future generations.
Against this background, the United Nations has set itself the goal of taking greater account of young people, who are currently not involved in the political decisions that concern them most.
Faced with these challenges, the "Pact for the Future" and the "Declaration for Future Generations" encourage Member States to invest in the social and economic development of children and young people, to protect and promote their rights, and to significantly strengthen their participation at the national and international levels.
A large number of side events and high-level meetings will take place during the 79th United Nations General Assembly and the Summit of the Future, including :
