Guterres will insist on the need to finance a stimulus of at least $500 billion for the Sustainable Development Goals and establish an effective mechanism to reduce the debt burden of the poorest countries, according to his announcement to the media. He will also propose a change in the business model of multilateral development banks to boost private financing on a much larger scale as well as the reorientation of fossil fuel subsidies towards more productive uses.

“The world is in a difficult moment of transition, faced with increasing inequality and levels of poverty and hunger and, at the same time, a clear lack of global solidarity,” Guterres said this Friday upon his arrival in New Delhi.

At the African Climate Summit, Guterres warned about the need for profound reforms so that the world’s financial institutions better respond to the needs of developing countries and particularly of that continent. “We need an international financial system with an architecture that favors developing countries in general and African countries in particular, and we need a reform of the Security Council in which Africa finally gets at least a permanent seat,” he said.

The Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) also served as a stage to warn of growing geopolitical tensions with a real risk of fragmentation in the economic world and the financial system; with divergent strategies regarding technology and artificial intelligence and security frameworks.

The Secretary-General reiterated his call to “end our attack on the planet” and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and the Acceleration Agenda that calls for developed countries to reach net zero by 2040, and by 2050 for emerging economies.

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