Climate, Covid-19 and famine issues raised at Munich Security Conference as world faces more violent threats

Munich/New York, February 18 – Issues of climate change, the pandemic and famine were raised at the annual Munich Security Conference which held an in-person meeting amid war threats in Ukraine for the first time since Covid-19 struck three years ago.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the meeting that non-traditional security issues like climate crisis and Covid-19, which are the world’s current biggest issues, may exacerbate global security and he demanded that world leaders take action.

On Ukraine, Guterres said, “I am deeply concerned about heightened tensions and increased speculation about a military conflict in Europe. I still think it will not happen. But if it did, it would be catastrophic.”

Guterres said the world has become more complex and dangerous under the pandemic. He cited security threats in Syria where Da’esh, Al-Qaida and its affiliates are regaining grounds, the risks of terrorist spill over out of Afghanistan as well as the alarming spread of terrorism in some African countries that show “how adept terrorists are at exploiting power vacuums and subverting fragile states.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the inadequacy and moral bankruptcy of the global financial system, which has increased the systemic inequality between north and south.

Many countries in the Global South have suffered devastating economic losses during the pandemic.

Governments face debt default and financial ruin, while their people face poverty, unemployment, hunger and despair.

“I urge all countries to step up support for global solutions to these non-traditional security threats, including the full implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change; the World Health Organization global vaccination strategy; and urgent reforms to the global financial system to enable developing countries to access the resources needed to support their people,” Guterres said.

WHO: Pandemic will end “when we choose to end it.”

WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus boldly told the conference that the answer to the question of when the pandemic will end: “It will end when we choose to end it. Because ultimately, it’s not a matter of chance, it’s a matter of choice.”

Tedros said the world now has the tools and know-how to end the pandemic this year.

“In particular, we are calling on all countries to fill the urgent financing gap of US$ 16 billion for the ACT Accelerator, to make vaccines, tests, treatments and PPE available everywhere,” he said.

Compared with the costs of another year of economic turmoil, $16 billion is frankly peanuts. And some finance ministers called it a rounding error to the money they are losing due to the pandemic.”

One of the programs to fight the pandemic is to allow and strengthen capacities for local production of vaccines and other health products in low- and middle-income countries. Tedros said WHO has established the WHO Technology Transfer Hub in South Africa, which has now developed its own mRNA COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

With the financial support of the European Union, WHO announced (February 18) the first six African countries to receive technology from the hub to produce their own mRNA vaccines: Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.

Tedros called for substantial resources of $31 billion a year in order to strengthen global health security with about $20 billion coming from existing and projected domestic and international resources, leaving a gap of U$ 10 billion per year.

“To close the gap for the most essential functions – such as surveillance, research and market-shaping for countermeasures – we support the idea of a new dedicated financing facility, anchored in, and directed by, WHO’s constitutional mandate, inclusive governance and technical expertise,” he said.

WFP: Famine threatens world like a ring of fire
David Beasly, Executive Director of the UN World Food Program (WFP), told the conference that conflict and climate shocks compounded by the pandemic and rising costs are driving millions of people to the brink of starvation.

“We have a ring of fire circling the earth now from the Sahel to South Sudan to Yemen, to Afghanistan, all the way around to Haiti and Central America,” Beasley said. “If we do not address the situation immediately over the next 9 months we will see famine, we will see destabilization of nations and we will see mass migration. If we don’t do something we are going to pay a mighty big price.”

He said a total of 45 million people in 43 countries are teetering on the edge of famine and as global hunger rates and humanitarian needs shoot ever higher, the resources required to meet them are levelling off. Beasly said the number of food insecure people has jumped from 135 million to 283 million in the last two years and it could spike ever further.

“We averted famine and catastrophe in 2021 and 2022 because nations stepped up. We thought COVID would be behind us by 2022, but it only recycled again, exacerbating, and creating economic catastrophes among the poorest countries around the world,” Beasley said. “WFP has the solutions and we’ve got the programs to stop this crisis, we just need the money, otherwise nations around the world will pay for it a thousand-fold.”

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