United Nations General Assembly President, Abdulla Shahid, says multilateralism still remains “the only way to address common challenges”. He said so in his first press conference since the conclusion of the annual High-Level Week.
COVID-19 remains a major challenge that “will not be over until we achieve universal vaccination”, he said, announcing a plan to convene a High-Level meeting in January to take stock of the global inoculation effort.
Noting that “humanity saw a tremendous amount of ingenuity and solidarity with the vaccines in record time”, the Assembly President said he was convinced that “we have the capacity to immunize the entire world”.
“What we need to do now is to act collectively to ensure that all who need it will receive the vaccine”, he argued. “We cannot simply accept that less than three per cent of people in Africa have received a shot”, while other regions are already administering boosters.
‘For people, for planet’
To confront the other worldwide threat of climate change, the Assembly President will convene, in hybrid format on October 26, an event entitled “Delivering Climate Action – for People, for Planet and for Prosperity”.
“This event will be focused on the gap between current and required technical and financial capacities to achieve the 1.5 degrees target…[and] to show how that gap can be met”.
Shahid said it would be an opportunity for Member States, civil society and others, to come together to “take stock of the ambition raising initiatives along the path to COP26”, taking place at the start of November in Glasgow, Scotland.
