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UN chief basks in climate spotlight, amid global conflict clouds
UNITED NATIONS, United States, Sept 22, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – On Monday,
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will position himself on the frontline
against climate change as he presides over a UN emergency summit, a role some
say he turned to after difficulties in resolving global conflict.
Speaking about rising temperatures, the 70-year-old recently told
journalists, smiling discreetly: “I don’t pretend I rule the world. My main
objective is to make as much noise as I can.”
In May, he traveled to the South Pacific where rising sea level threatens
entire island nations and more recently to the hurricane-ravaged Bahamas,
witnessing a devastation the likes of which he said he had never seen.
Mobilizing the globe’s movers and shakers against climate change is
paramount in the eyes of Guterres, who served as Portugal’s prime minister
from 1995 to 2002 and often mentions not wanting to leave his grandchildren a
destroyed planet.
However the focus on climate change marks an evolution for Guterres, who
arrived in the role in early 2017 under the belief that his predecessor,
South Korea’s Ban Ki-moon, had already achieved great things with the 2015
Paris climate accord.
“Guterres wanted to focus instead on crisis management,” said Richard Gowan
of the International Crisis Group, noting in the same breath that Guterres’
“crisis management failed first in Cyprus, then this year in Libya.”
– Severe humiliation –
In Libya, Guterres’ humiliation was severe. He traveled to the country to
personally advance prospects for a political solution, only to have one of
the negotiating parties launch a deadly offensive to seize the capital of
Tripoli in the wake of his departure.
The secretary-general’s human rights efforts around the world have resulted
in meager gains, with many NGOs believing he could do much more.
While the UN helped broker the end to a decades-old dispute between Greece
and Macedonia, which resulted in the latter country’s name change to the
Republic of North Macedonia, little has come of efforts to halt conflict in
Syria and Yemen or ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.
– Behind-the-scenes diplomacy –
Following the Monday climate summit, Guterres will steer the UN General
Assembly, herding 91 heads of state, six vice presidents, 45 heads of
government and more than 40 ministers through “diplomatic fashion week” or
“diplomacy speed dating” as the New York gathering is often called at
headquarters.
Potential conflict in the Middle East between the United States and Iran
will dominate discussion at the General Assembly, where Guterres will adeptly
work his skill at behind-the-scenes diplomacy to reduce tensions, in sharp
contrast with his flashier center-stage efforts on climate change.
On a daily basis, Guterres, who sets his watch ahead by three-quarters of
an hour — deeply disturbing to some dignitaries who have visited him — says
he strives to manage jetlag and admits that he doesn’t sleep on airplanes.
The practicing Catholic said that one of the difficulties of his job is
doing “everything I can for the billions of people that live in very
difficult circumstances in the world.”
It’s these sorts of interpersonal skills that have earned him praise from
the majority of ambassadors working at the UN.
Even amid a push by US President Donald Trump to slash UN funding, Guterres
has persevered, only just beginning to make sense of an organization he might
like to head for a second term.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0835 hrs