By Prof. Dr. Bharat H. Desai
Director, Institute for Advanced Studies in International Law and Diplomacy
Editor-in-Chief, Environmental Policy and Law
Introduction
On September 22-23, 2024 all roads will lead to the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York for the Summit of the Future1. The Heads of State and Government of 193-member organization will assemble in 2024 that has come to be known as the “Year of the Planetary Future”2. Described as once-in-a-generation UN Summit, it will be a unique stage to address current and future global challenges as well as reform of the UN Charter (1945). “I have one overriding message today: an appeal to Member States for a spirit of compromise. Show the world what we can do, when we work together,” the feisty UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in his September 18 address at the UNGA’s high-level week. He pleaded to the world leaders that “We can’t create a future fit for our grandchildren with systems built for our grandparents,” he said, stressing that the Summit “cannot fail”3.
The Moment of Truth
The current warning bells concerning planetary level crisis and quest of conscientious thought leaders and decision-makers to find solutions underscores proverbial dilemma of the humankind on living in harmony with nature (GA resolution 75/220 of December 21, 2020). It vividly reminds us about the alarm bells rung in the decades of sixties and seventies through scholarly works such as Silent Spring (Rachel Carson, 1962), The Limits to Growth (Club of Rome, 1972), This Endangered Planet (Richard Falk, 1972) and Only One Earth (Barbara Ward & Rene Dubos, 1972). They in fact set the stage for the epochal first UN Conference on Human Environment (Stockholm, 1972)4. This author recalls his early publication, as a doctoral scholar, sought to underscore the “human quest for development seriously threatens our fragile ecosystem”5. The resultant global environmental regulatory process has come a long way. In fact, full 50 years later, two curated scholarly works of this author in 2022 (Envisioning Our Environmental Future)6 and 2021 (Our Earth Matters)7 reflected the spirit of those early works by reminding the decision-makers as regards rapidly “depleting time"8 for a decisive course correction.
The timing of the UN Summit can be considered as humankind’s “moment of truth”9 wherein global challenges are moving faster than the ability to resolve them. It is taking place in the aftermath of the two mega conferences of 2022 on the Stockholm+5010 and UNEP@5011. In his June 02, 2022 address at Stockholm+50, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had warned that our consumption is “at the rate of 1.7 planets a year” and the “global well-being is in jeopardy”. The gathering storms indicate the planetary-level human-induced crisis at work. Since coming events cast their shadows before, humankind seems to have sleepwalked into an existential “triple planetary crisis”12.
The advent of the UN has stood the test of time for 79 long years unlike the League of Nations that existed for 20 years. Notwithstanding its limits, as a member-driven international organization in a State-centric global order, the UN matters most for humanity’s survival on planet Earth. The UNGA has been the main anchor for concerted international environmental law-making13 and institution-building processes14 comprising the normative approach at work. Pursuing the global conferencing technique, the UNGA took crucial decisions across a wide canvass that include convening of some major global conferences (1972, 1992, 2002, 2012 and 2022). The AR6 Synthesis Report (Interlaken; March 13-19, 2023)15 of the IPCC, set up by the UNGA in 1988, has now unequivocally confirmed widespread and rapid “human-caused climate change” occurred in the “atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere…in every region across the globe”.
2024: New York Summit
The Summit of the Future is expected to come out with crucial outcome document entitled “Pact for the Future.”16 As on September 13, 2024, a negotiated text of 86 paragraphs has been agreed upon through intergovernmental negotiations. It will also comprise two other instruments: Global Digital Compact and Declaration on Future Generations. The Pact pledges for a new beginning in multilateralism. It aims to ensure that the UN and other key multilateral institutions can deliver a better future for people and planet. It could enable states to fulfil existing commitments amidst new and emerging challenges and opportunities. The renewed thrust would be on “equally important, interlinked and mutually reinforcing” across three pillars of the United Nations – sustainable development, peace and security, and human rights. It has also been emphasized that “every commitment in this Pact is fully consistent and aligned with international law, including human rights law”. In the opening session of the first day (September 22), the tone of the Summit will be set by Philemon Yang, President of the UNGA and the UNSG António Guterres. While the Plenary Meeting will take place in the General Assembly Hall, the interactive dialogues will be held in the Trusteeship Council Chamber. Interestingly, there are scholarly ideas (mooted by this author) from the Global South to ‘repurpose’17 of the same UN Trusteeship Council with a new mandate for global environment and global commons.
The Summit will witness four interactive dialogues: (i) Transforming global governance and turbocharging the implementation of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development Co-Chaired by K P Sharma Oli, Prime Minister of Nepal; (ii) Enhancing multilateralism for international peace and security, Co-Chaired by Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone; (iii) Towards a Common Digital Future: strengthening inclusive innovation and cooperation to bridge the digital divides Co-Chaired by Alar Karis, President of Estonia and Mohamed Muizzu, President of Maldives); (iv) The Future Starts Now: enhancing the global system for current and future generations, Co-Chaired by Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica and Evelyn Wever-Croes, Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
The Pact has been organized around 58 action points18 arranged under five pillars of sustainable development and financing for development, international peace and security, science, technology and innovation and digital cooperation, youth and future generations and transforming global governance. The two year-long preparatory process for the Summit has brought about the realization that future of our international order is at stake and it cannot stand still. It promises to “promote cooperation and understanding between Member States, defuse tensions, seek the pacific settlement of disputes and resolve conflicts”. For the first time, it lays down a roadmap for reform of the UNSC to make it “more representative, inclusive, transparent, efficient, effective, democratic and accountable”. In essence, it considers the rationale given by India for enlargement of the UNSC based of various criteria, categories of membership as well as widely felt need for taming of the use of veto. In fact, it suggests for intensifying efforts “to reach an agreement on the future of the veto, including discussions on limiting its scope and use”. The G4 group (Brazil, Germany, India and Japan) has been consistently making a case for urgent UNSC reforms.
Conclusion
In his September 2020 virtual address to the UNGA, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi contended that “we cannot fight today’s challenges with outdated structures”.19 This has been now echoed in the UNSG’s assertion this week in New York that “we can’t create a future fit for our grandchildren with systems built for our grandparents.”20 Thus, there are high expectations that the Summit “cannot fail.”
