So Much Trouble In The World, But Not Enough Money, Says Top UN Official.

UN official Achim Steiner. Photo: David Fisher for the Oxford Martin School

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Achim Steiner, 62, the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme has warned that if rich countries don’t invest in poorer countries that are struggling with climate change, the planet will be destabilized and all hell will break loose.

The data indicate that the development advances of the past are stagnating, or even regressing. “Many people feel deeply uncertain about the future, where our politics is deteriorating increasingly into a level of confrontation and polarization, which is undermining our ability to solve some of these problems. We’re in a difficult moment,” Steiner said in an interview with El Pais.

He warned that, when the richest countries stop investing in the development of the poorest ones, fuel is added to the fire of global instability. “It’s a very bleak time in terms of multilateralism,” he adds.

He added: “The world is in trouble. We’re seeing a level of conflict and distress following Covid-19 and the subsequent financial crisis, which has translated into a debt crisis for many developing countries. This is intensified by climate change.”

“Many people feel deeply uncertain about the future, where our politics is deteriorating increasingly into a level of confrontation and polarization that is undermining our ability to solve some of these problems. We’re in a difficult moment. We’re far behind where we wanted to be on the Sustainable Development Goals.”

He was asked about the recently signed Pact for the Future and whether it will help to combat these inequalities.

“The Pact for the Future isn’t a philosophical document”, said Steiner.

“It’s the distillation of hard negotiations between 193 countries on what needs to be done and what they need to do together. It’s reassuring because there are many things that countries agree that we need to work together on… but it’s not a guarantee that it will happen tomorrow, because it’s a very bleak time in terms of multilateralism. But that’s not the product of a failure of the United Nations. The United Nations is a reflection of the state of international relations.”

Steiner added that many countries cannot invest in education or healthcare, because they have to pay off exorbitant debts and that their outgoings are greater than any amount that they receive in foreign aid.