World Insights: Global actions for pressing challenges urged ahead of G20, APEC meetings
At this critical moment, the world community is looking on to see what the coming Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Indonesia and the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Thailand can contribute to building up global consensus and renewing joint efforts, Xinhua reports.
A DEFINING MOMENT
It is a moment of a culmination of unresolved challenges, both old -- as were prioritized in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) -- and new, which further drag on the global economy and tens of millions of households.
Now three years into COVID-19, the pandemic seems nowhere near over. It has not only led to a dramatic loss of human lives, but also decimated jobs and constituted an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems, and administrative governance, leading UN agencies have repeatedly warned.
The COVID-19 has shown to perfection that it is imperative for all in the world to recognize that mankind has a shared future and must therefore look out for each other and marshal a collective response to global challenges, Martin Albrow, a fellow with the British Academy of Social Sciences, wrote in his book.
To make matters worse, there are surging inflation and spillovers from the U.S. Federal Reserve's aggressive rate hikes, mounting fears of food and energy insecurity, disrupted industrial and supply chains, failed climate pledges and heightened geopolitical tensions.
Tackling such big global issues needs «the focus for collective activities, which go beyond national boundaries,» he told Xinhua.
Addressing the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in September, Retno Marsudi, minister for foreign affairs of Indonesia where the G20 Summit will be held from Nov. 14 to 17, said that the whole world is pinning their hope on the G20 to be the catalyst of global economic recovery, especially for the developing countries.
«G20 must not fail. We can not let global recovery fall at the mercy of geopolitics,» she said.
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