U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Wednesday that the global economy is heading into the “eye of a Category 5 hurricane” during his address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Guterres said the world is facing a “perfect storm” on multiple fronts, which include problems caused by the global shutdown from the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the threat of a recession.
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“We are looking into the eye of a Category 5 hurricane. Our world is plagued by a perfect storm on a number of fronts,” the head of the United Nations said in Switzerland.
“Start with the short term, the global economic crisis. The outlook, as we all know, is bleak. Many parts of the world face recession, and the entire world faces a slowdown.”
Supply chain disruptions, an increase in the cost of living that includes skyrocketing food and energy prices, and climate change are all part of the world’s economic troubles, Guterres said.
In order to combat the oncoming hurricane, the U.N. has proposed a global stimulus that would help address economic challenges in poorer countries and provide tools to oversee a “just” transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.
“We need to move from a dominance of fossil fuels to dominance of renewables. But we need to do that in a just way,” Guterres told Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo.
“We [need to] take into account the people that will be affected negatively in the areas that live with fossil fuel predominance. … This transition needs to be well managed, not like the Rust Belt of the past in which the transition from heavy industry in the United States, in Europe, in other parts of the world was not properly met as well.”
He also warned that the plan to restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius as outlined in the Paris agreement “is going up in smoke. Without further action, we are headed to a 2.8-degree increase.”
The theme for the meeting of hundreds of world leaders in Switzerland was “Cooperation in a Fragmented World.” It stressed working together to combat the economic crisis. The crisis affects all countries, including those in the Global South who have become frustrated with first-world countries, according to Guterres.
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“I am not convinced that the wealthier world truly grasps the degree of frustration and anger in the Global South. Frustration and anger about the gross inequity of vaccine distribution. Frustration and anger about pandemic recovery — with support overwhelmingly concentrated in wealthier countries that could print money, and frustration and anger about a climate crisis that is crippling countries that contributed least to global heating,” Guterres said at the World Economic Forum.
The World Economic Forum, which will end on Jan. 20, has been criticized for being a meeting of elites. More than 70% of the sessions are being live-streamed this year, according to the forum. There is also a blog to encourage engagement.
