Sixty world leaders meet Monday at the UN for a summit on “the climate emergency” supposed to reinvigorate the faltering Paris agreement. Less than half of the 136 heads of state and government who come to New York this week for the UN’s Annual General Assembly have asked to participate.
After this summit, the 75th United Nations General Assembly will start. Every year, it is the same ritual with the same great speeches.
The United Nations General Assembly serves to bring together the 193 states of the planet, once a year, normally represented by their head of state. And it is mainly used to listen to the speeches of these presidents, which in theory should not last more than 15 minutes. In theory because Fidel Castro, in 1960, made one of 269 minutes!
But it is not only the speeches, there are especially meetings, and the most important are not those that we believe. There are for this week 600 meetings organized, in particular the famous “bilateral”, meetings between two countries. The most important moments don’t take place in the UN glass tower, but in the bars of Manhattan hotels. This is where real differences are sometimes resolved, or where alliances are formed and conflicts are avoided.
None of the General Assembly resolutions are binding, but what is important is that every country, from the weakest to the strongest, has the same voice. So there is still the strength of the group, and diplomats consider this gathering useful. It is, it seems, at the moment, on the climate, where countries reluctant to change are forced, at a minimum, to become aware of the urgency.
This year, Chinese Xi Jinping, Russian Vladimir Putin and Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu will not be there. But their emissaries will be present. Once again the star is Donald Trump, who hates the UN and considers the Assembly to be a “club for chatting and having a good time”. The american president will not attend the climate debates, but he will be happy to greet his Brazilian friend Jair Bolsonaro.
The other issues of the week, in fact, are tragic: tensions with Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Venezuela, etc. No peace will be signed this week, but perhaps new wars will be avoided.
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