UN ‘Summit of the Future’ and pact for global transformation

By Sheikh Mohammed Ahmed Al-Sabah

On Sept 22, 2024, the Uniting for the Future Summit was held. The leaders of the world signed the Pact for the Future. As a key part of the agreement, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the UN should undergo a root and branch reform. The Pact for the Future is concerned mainly with the coordinating role of global governance. Many leaders of the world have shown their concerns about the acute protracted issues that concern their people. The pact contains the driving proposals related to climate change, geopolitics, and local wars. Antonio Guterres said near a root and branch reform, pointing out the necessity of large-scale reform in the current global institutions.

The pact includes key documents such as the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations. This agreement comes from years of consultations and negotiations. The pact covers a range of issues. This includes peace and security, SDGs, climate change, digital cooperation, human rights, gender equality, and youth engagement. According to the summit, some of the most significant aspects of the pact include as follows:

Aspect 1: Peace and security

This aspect highlights the commitment to reforming the UN Security Council. The pact addresses the under-representation of Africa and other regions. Moreover, there is a recommitment to nuclear disarmament to cut nuclear weapons. To achieve this, strengthened international frameworks are needed, especially for space areas. Countries need peaceful and sustainable use of outer space to ensure that all countries benefit and prevent an arms race in space. So, there is a need to prevent the misuse of emerging technologies like lethal autonomous weapons. One of the solutions is to reaffirm that the laws of war apply to new technologies.

Aspect 2: Sustainable development

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been a long-standing pressing issue. This time around, this pact seeks to speed up their advancement, which proposes some framework for several tangible reforms aimed at making the global financial architecture fairer for developing countries. First, a reform of the global financial architecture will ensure greater representation of developing countries in international financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank. It also appreciates and supports other sustainable borrowing, flexibility and spending.

Besides financial capability for developing countries, the second area is climate change. This pact limits anthropogenic temperature rise to no more than 1.5°C relative to pre-industrial times. It deferrals in fossil fuels on a path to net-zero emissions by 2050 and beyond. Furthermore, it considers and stresses more money to help countries with climate change adaptation and renewable resources. Finally, to account for the progress and to provide metrics to measure human growth, it will recommend new metrics to “measure human progress beyond GDP as measures of planetary and human well-being”.

Aspect 3: Digital Cooperation, AI

The Global Digital Compact, part of the pact, is the first global framework for digital cooperation and AI governance. The summit designed the pact to ensure that technology is designed, used, and governed for the benefit of all. A key goal is to ensure universal access to the Internet, especially in schools and hospitals. Moreover, it calls on governments and tech companies to make the digital world safer, particularly for children. This can achieved by anchoring digital cooperation in human rights and international law. As AI is growing, there are benefits and threats that a lot of people can face. As of 2024, 118 countries are not involved in any significant AI governance initiatives. So, the pact sets out a roadmap for governing AI. This includes the establishment of an International Scientific Panel and a Global Policy Dialogue on AI.

Aspect 4: Future generations

This pact’s most original addition is the First Declaration on Future Generations. It provides young people with the opportunity to take advantage of global governance. The pact contains important provisions for human rights defenders calling for more and stronger society’s involvement. The engagement includes civil society, local governments, and the business case in global governance. Attention has been refocused toward women and gender inequality, gender is also an instrument for attaining peace and development. All in all, this forum as well as the endorsement of the Pact for the Future forms a turning point in the system of global governance. The scope of the pact is wide and creates a common will to address the major challenges of the time. The Summit thus participates in the advancement of the global order for equity, sustainable development and social justice.

The AAIOT

In leveraging the potential of artificial intelligence (AI), everyone needs to play their respective parts to carry forward the goals laid out in the Pact for the Future. Our association is making use of this AI function to assist with the realization of these international objectives. To turn these lofty goals into action, innovation, and science matter – as do strong partnerships. We will be vital in using AI for matters like digital cooperation, climate change and economic disparity.

The results we expect, yet, need an international level of cooperation — and that has to begin with national laws. Every country must pass its laws and put into place the necessary procedures to make the Pact for the Future work. Countries might also join protocols to encourage cooperation and accountability when national regimes are in place. The clock is ticking, and we must urgently confront the pervasive challenges of climate change, cyber security, and social inequalities. This will be one contribution from our institution by translating our goals into tangible realities, namely towards the realization of a sustainable and more just global order in line with what the UN has described the “Pact for the Future”.

NOTE: Sheikh Mohammed Ahmed Al-Sabah is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Artificial Intelligence of Things

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