World leaders return to UN with focus on Covid-19 and climate

Dozens of world leaders are heading to New York this week for the UN’s annual high-level gathering

Progress will be sought on pressing global problems – starting with the pandemic and an ambitious climate agreement

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The United Nations General Assembly will meet this week in New York after the Covid-19 pandemic had made the gathering a virtual event last year. Photo: TNS

Published: 12:22pm, 20 Sep 2021Updated: 9:23pm, 20 Sep 2021

World leaders are returning to the United Nations in New York this week with a focus on boosting efforts to fight both climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic, which last year forced them to send video statements for the annual gathering.

As the coronavirus still rages amid an inequitable vaccine roll-out, about a third of the 193 UN states are planning to again send videos, but presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers for the remainder are due to travel to the United States.

The United States tried to dissuade leaders from coming to New York in a bid to stop the UN General Assembly from becoming a “super-spreader event”, although President Joe Biden will address the assembly in person, his first UN visit since taking office. A so-called UN honour system means that anyone entering the assembly hall effectively declares they are vaccinated, but they do not have to show proof.

This system will be broken when the first country speaks – Brazil. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is a vaccine sceptic, who last week declared that he does not need the shot because he is already immune after being infected with Covid-19.

Should he change his mind, New York City has set up a van outside the United Nations for the week to supply free testing and free shots of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

China’s President Xi Jinping will deliver remarks via video link on Tuesday, Xinhua reported.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the discussions around how many travelling diplomats might have been immunised illustrated “how dramatic the inequality is today in relation to vaccination”. He is pushing for a global plan to vaccinate 70 per cent of the world by the first half of next year.