Guterres Warns of Wars, AI and Climate Risks in Final UN General Assembly Address
By Sadaf Sundas Riaz | SCN NEWS
UNITED NATIONS, New York, Sept. 22 (SCN NEWS) — United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres used his final opening address to the General Assembly on Tuesday to warn that geopolitical divisions, expanding wars, climate disruption and rapidly advancing artificial intelligence were placing unprecedented pressure on the international system, calling on governments to restore restraints on power through law and overhaul institutions he said no longer reflect today's world.
Opening the General Debate of the 81st session, Guterres looked back across nearly a decade as UN chief and said global divisions had become dramatically deeper during that period. His second five-year term ends on Dec. 31, making Tuesday's speech his final opening address to the annual gathering of world leaders as secretary-general.
“The faultlines in our world are widening,” Guterres told the General Assembly. “Cracks have become canyons.”
He described a decade in which wars erupted and persisted, civilians were targeted, human rights were violated, hunger was weaponised and humanitarian workers were killed. At the same time, geopolitical divisions and inequality deepened, public trust weakened, climate change moved from a distant threat into everyday reality and AI advanced faster than many of its own creators anticipated.
The central argument of Guterres' farewell address was that these challenges should not be treated as separate crises. He presented them instead as different manifestations of a global struggle over power — who possesses it, who lacks it and whether institutions designed after World War Two remain capable of restraining its use.
That message came as world leaders assembled in New York amid continuing conflicts in the Middle East, Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere, while the United Nations itself faces questions over its influence, financing and ability to act when major powers disagree. Reuters said the gathering is taking place amid increasing doubts about whether the organisation can remain effective as geopolitical competition intensifies.
The Middle East occupied a prominent place in his address. Guterres appealed to governments attending high-level week to use the gathering for de-escalation and dialogue, calling for fighting to stop, humanitarian assistance to flow and navigational rights and freedoms to be restored in accordance with international law.
His comments came as U.S.-Iran tensions and disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz dominated diplomacy around the General Assembly. They also coincided with continuing conflict involving Israel and the Palestinians.
Guterres condemned the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, while describing the subsequent killing and destruction inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza as being on a scale unlike anything he had witnessed during his years as secretary-general. He called on all parties to comply with international law and orders issued by the International Court of Justice.
He also warned that violence, displacement and settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank were further undermining prospects for a negotiated settlement, and renewed his support for a two-state solution.
Ukraine was another focus of the secretary-general's appeal for diplomacy. Guterres called for an end to ongoing conflicts and argued that peace efforts must remain anchored in the UN Charter and international law rather than simply reflecting the power of the parties involved.
But his speech extended well beyond traditional peace and security.
Artificial intelligence has become one of the most consequential new issues to emerge during Guterres' tenure. He called for stronger international governance of increasingly powerful AI systems, including a multilateral framework for managing risks and independent oversight.
The warning comes as AI moves deeper into the UN security agenda. Governments are debating how to manage the technology's potential military, economic and social consequences while attempting to prevent global standards from being determined solely by a handful of powerful countries and technology companies.
Climate change formed the third major pillar of Guterres' warning. He called for faster action to reduce emissions and reiterated that those responsible for pollution should bear greater responsibility for the consequences of the climate crisis.
His intervention comes immediately before Wednesday's UN high-level climate meeting on climate action and a just transition, where governments are expected to address clean-energy investment, adaptation, resilience and financing for developing countries.
Guterres also returned to an institutional issue that has defined much of his tenure: reform of the United Nations itself.
He again backed changes to the Security Council, including permanent African representation. Africa currently has elected members on the Council but no permanent seat, despite comprising more than a quarter of UN member states and accounting for a substantial share of the Council's peace and security agenda.
Guterres has described that absence as unjust and indefensible, while African governments have increasingly made Security Council reform a central element of their demands for changes to global governance.
The argument goes beyond representation. The Security Council's five permanent members — China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States — possess veto power, which has repeatedly prevented collective action when their strategic interests collide.
The secretary-general's departure therefore coincides with a broader debate over what kind of United Nations his successor will inherit.
The organisation faces financial pressure, divisions among major powers and simultaneous demands to respond to wars, humanitarian emergencies, climate change, development inequality and emerging technologies. The selection of the next secretary-general is underway as governments debate whether institutional reform can keep pace with those challenges.
Guterres nevertheless argued that increasing global interdependence makes international cooperation more necessary rather than less. Associated Press reported that his central appeal was for governments to recognise that challenges crossing national borders cannot be solved by countries acting alone.
That leaves UNGA81 confronting a question extending beyond Guterres' final months in office: whether governments dissatisfied with the international system will reform and strengthen it, or increasingly bypass it as geopolitical competition intensifies.
For Guterres, the answer remains multilateral cooperation governed by international law.
His final General Assembly address did not offer a simple assessment of his decade in office. Instead, it amounted to a warning about the institution he will leave behind — a United Nations facing more simultaneous demands, deeper political divisions and rapidly changing technological and environmental risks, precisely when collective action has become increasingly difficult.