UN faces an uphill battle in its world renewal endeavors

The year 2025 marks the Year of the Snake according to the Chinese calendar. In his Chinese New Year greeting, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, "The snake symbolizes wisdom, resilience and renewal. In these trying times, let us be guided by these qualities and renew our commitment to peace, equality and justice."

Commitment to peace, equality and justice has been a long-held spirit of the UN ever since its founding in 1945. Guterres used the word "renew" in his message in a nod to the "renewal" quality of the snake. It also reveals his concern that there have been disruptions or deficiencies in pursuing this spirit, and he wished to see that changed. Parenthetically, in his 2025 New Year message, Guterres similarly called for making 2025 a "new beginning".

It's no coincidence that on both occasions Guterres talked about a "renewal" of the world. In the current circumstance filled with increasing uncertainties, the world needs a renewal and a new beginning. The question is: Will the UN chief's calls for a renewed commitment be answered, and can the UN bring on a renewal of the world?

Guterres has many reasons to be concerned.

On one hand, the world is confronted with unprecedented difficulties and challenges that have never been seen before. In Guterres' words, throughout 2024, hope has been hard to find. Wars are causing enormous pain, suffering and displacement. Inequalities and divisions are rife, fueling tensions and mistrust. The globe has just endured a decade of deadly heat and the top 10 hottest years have been recorded in the last 10 years, including 2024 — a climate breakdown in real time.

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024 released recently by the UN paints an equally gloomy picture. The report finds that only 17 percent of the UN Sustainable Development Goals targets are on track, nearly half are showing minimal or moderate progress, and progress on over one third has stalled or even regressed. "The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024 makes for sobering reading. … This situation is not going to improve on its own: Developing countries, as a whole face the worst medium-term economic outlook in a generation," said the UN chief.

To counter these challenges, the UN outlined at the beginning of the year the priorities for the organization's work in 2025, emphasizing the need for member states to collectively address the most pressing global challenges, including peace and security in Africa, combating the illegal use of small arms and light weapons, upholding human dignity in armed conflicts, eliminating child labor, increasing development financing and accelerating the promotion of Sustainable Development Goals, among many others. The long list of priorities speaks volumes about the daunting task facing the organization.

On the other hand, geopolitics adds more questions than answers. For example, just three weeks after Guterres' New Year message, the newly elected US President Donald Trump signed two presidential executive orders right on the day of his inauguration to withdraw his country from the World Health Organization, an important UN entity governing global public health, and from the Paris Agreement, a key international collaboration mechanism under the auspice of the UN to deal with climate change and global warming.

US' withdrawal from WHO and the Paris Agreement no doubt dealt a serious blow to the UN's unity and commitment, as well as to the world's efforts to tackle the many global crises and challenges under the UN's leadership. Just as one may think this is bad enough, merely two weeks later, the White House announced that the US would no longer "participate in the UN Human Rights Council and will not seek election to that body".

The world needs a strong and effective UN, and the UN needs continued support of the world. There is hope in Guterres' eyes. The Pact for the Future, adopted by the UN last September, was underscored by the UN chief as "a new push" to build peace through disarmament and prevention, reform the global financial system, and stick to the values and principles enshrined by human rights, international law and the UN Charter. Incidentally, in his Chinese New Year greeting, Guterres thanked China and the Chinese people for their steadfast support of the UN, multilateralism and global cooperation. Indeed, multilateralism and global cooperation are key, and China has been a staunch supporter of global cooperation within the multilateral framework of the UN.

Yet, the question remains. Can the UN unite the international community to work together to achieve a renewal of the world and create a better future for all in the Year of the Snake, as Guterres wished?

This warrants some serious thinking to answer in light of the many thorny issues and deep-rooted challenges troubling the world today. When talking about the work of the organization, the UN chief remarked, albeit somewhat reluctantly, "There are no guarantees for what's ahead in 2025." Well, in the views of many, one thing seems certain though — it will be an uphill battle to fight.

The author is former country director of the United Nations Development Programme.