Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, for the second year in a row, the Forum scrapped its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, for a series of online plenaries and discussions over the year ahead, under the banner of The Davos Agenda.
Speaking from New York, Guterres said that this year’s event takes place “in the shadow of an enormously difficult period for economies, people and our planet.”
“The last two years have demonstrated a simple but brutal truth - if we leave anyone behind, we leave everyone behind”, the UN chief said.
The Secretary-General then urged all participants in the Forum to focus on three urgent areas.
The first one, he explained, is to confront the pandemic with equity and fairness.
Reminding of the World Health Organization (WHO) goal to vaccinate 40 per cent of people in all countries by the end of last year, and 70 per cent by the middle of this year, Mr. Guterres said the world was nowhere even close.
In fact, he added, vaccination rates in high-income countries are “shamefully” seven times higher than in African countries.
The second area in need of urgent action is the global financial system.
“We need to reform the global financial system, so it works for all countries”, Mr Guterres explained. “At this critical moment, we are setting in stone a lopsided recovery.”
With more than eight out of ten recovery dollars being spent in developed countries, the UN chief believes low-income countries are at a huge disadvantage.
The third, and last, area highlighted by the Secretary-General was climate action in developing countries.
Even if all developed countries keep their promises to drastically reduce emissions by 2030, global emissions will still be too high to keep the 1.5 degree goal within reach.
Guterres argued that 1.2 degrees of warming has “already brought devastating consequences and soaring price tags measured in dollars and despair.”
For the Secretary-General, the first priority must be a targeted phase-out of coal. No new coal plants should be built.