António Guterres used his final address opening the U.N. General Assembly to call for a transition away from fossil fuels, expanded international cooperation, Security Council reform, a two-state solution in the Middle East and stronger global oversight of artificial intelligence.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres used his final General Assembly address Tuesday to defend an expansive vision of international cooperation, press governments to move away from fossil fuels and argue that existing global institutions must be restructured to reflect changing centers of political and economic power.
Guterres, whose second five-year term ends Dec. 31, opened the 81st General Assembly’s general debate in New York with an address centered on war, inequality, climate change and artificial intelligence. The U.N. said he framed those issues as interconnected struggles over how power is distributed and exercised.
His full General Assembly address came roughly 100 days before he leaves office, as U.N. members continue the process of choosing his successor. The race has unfolded through nominations, candidate dialogues and Security Council deliberations, with prospective candidates entering and leaving the contest to replace Guterres. The next secretary-general is scheduled to take office Jan. 1, 2027.
“The fault lines in our world are widening; cracks have become canyons,” Guterres declared as he described a decade marked by expanding wars, weakened international norms and rapid technological change.
“The climate crisis went from distant warning to daily reality and artificial intelligence moved at a speed that has blindsided even those who created it,” he continued. “These are not separate crises. They are chapters of the same story, the story of power: who has it, who is denied it, and how it is used and how it is changing.”
The secretary-general argued that political power is shifting in several directions at once: among nations, from governments toward large corporations and individuals, and increasingly toward artificial intelligence and automated technologies.
He said international institutions created in the aftermath of World War II have not kept pace with those changes and continue to reflect “the power realities and interests of a largely bygone age.”
Guterres presented two possible futures for an increasingly multipolar international system.
“One possibility is a world of fragmentation and transactionalism, a world of rising tensions and deepening mistrust, of fractured markets and weakened institutions, of shrinking cooperation and zero-sum calculations,” he warned, “and in many respects, that is the trajectory we are on today. But there is another path – a path towards networked multipolarity, a world built on interdependence and sustained by an advanced web of economic, political, social, and technological connections.”
Guterres said “we are clearly moving towards a multipolar world and that movement is irreversible,” but argued that competing centers of power should remain connected through shared institutions rather than separating into rival political, technological and security blocs.
He advocated a “world in which multiple centers of influence coexist with a common framework of international law and shared rules,” describing that approach as a way to resist both “hegemonic tendencies and also what I’ve call the ‘great fracture.’”
Guterres defined the “great fracture” as “the division of the world into two rival blocs with separate economic, technological, and security systems.”
His argument reflected a recurring theme of his tenure: that sovereignty and national power should operate within a stronger framework of multilateral rules rather than through competing blocs acting largely independently.
“Building such a future begins with a recognition, especially by superpowers that their power isn’t so super,” Guterres said, according to the U.N.’s account of the speech.
He did not identify a particular country in that line.
Guterres also returned to a longstanding demand for changes to the U.N. Security Council, saying its current structure fails to reflect the modern distribution of population and geopolitical influence.
“A 21st century Security Council without permanent African representation is unjust and indefensible,” he said.
The Security Council has 15 members, including five permanent members — the United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom — whose veto powers have repeatedly complicated U.N. action on major international conflicts.
Guterres has advocated Security Council reform throughout his tenure, although changing the council’s permanent membership requires action by U.N. member states rather than a unilateral decision by the secretary-general.
He also highlighted what he described as progress inside the U.N., including achieving “gender parity” among senior leadership, headquarters and professional staff.
“Equality is not a dream. It is a decision,” Guterres said.
Climate policy occupied another substantial portion of the address.
Guterres again called on governments to adopt plans for a “future without fossil fuels,” maintain the international goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and substantially increase climate-related financial assistance to developing countries.
He declared that “polluters must pay,” while calling for developed nations to triple funding for climate adaptation. The U.N. summary said Guterres contrasted profits generated by major oil companies with the amount of adaptation financing available to developing nations.
His continued emphasis on eliminating fossil-fuel dependence follows years of disagreements among governments over the pace, financing and economic consequences of such a transition. Even recent U.N. climate negotiations have exposed divisions over how explicitly international agreements should commit countries to moving away from fossil fuels, including disagreements highlighted after the COP30 summit.
Guterres also discussed recent climate-related disasters and argued that governments should treat extreme weather, rising temperatures and glacial changes as evidence of the need for accelerated action.
His speech can be viewed in the U.N. General Assembly video.
Artificial intelligence received similarly prominent treatment.
Guterres said governments need greater transparency about emerging AI risks and should cooperate on testing, safety standards and independent oversight.
“The danger is not technology. The danger is technology without accountability,” he said.
He also called for an international AI risk-management framework and restrictions on autonomous weapons.
“Life-and-death decisions must never be surrendered to machines,” Guterres said. “Killer robots must have no place in our future.”
The Middle East formed another major part of the address.
Amid continuing instability surrounding the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea shipping, Guterres called for de-escalation and restoration of maritime access under international law.
“Together, let’s send a clear message from this hall: The fighting must stop. Humanitarian aid must flow. And navigational rights and freedoms must be fully restored in accordance with international law,” Guterres said.
He also renewed his support for a “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and warned that expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank threaten the viability of such an arrangement. Delegates responded with sustained applause when he defended the proposal, Reuters reported.
Support for a two-state framework remains official policy for many governments and international organizations, although disagreement remains extensive over borders, security arrangements, Palestinian governance, Israeli settlements and whether current political conditions make such an agreement achievable.
Guterres also addressed the war in Ukraine, describing Russia’s full-scale invasion as a violation of the U.N. Charter, and referred to conflicts in Sudan and Myanmar as examples of what he said happens when military power outpaces diplomacy and accountability.
The secretary-general’s final General Assembly speech capped nearly a decade in which he consistently advocated stronger multilateral institutions, climate action, international development funding and U.N.-centered approaches to global conflict.
His tenure has simultaneously coincided with significant strains on the institution.
Major powers have increasingly bypassed or deadlocked the Security Council, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have exposed divisions among permanent members, and the United States has reduced funding and withdrawn from several U.N. bodies and initiatives. Reuters reported that Guterres leaves the organization facing financial pressure as well as questions about its ability to influence governments during major conflicts.
Guterres acknowledged those challenges but rejected calls for diminishing the institution.
“The world does not need a weaker United Nations,” he said. “It needs a UN strong enough to face the world as it is and determined enough to build the world as it should be.”
With his term nearing its conclusion, Guterres used the closing portion of the speech to make clear that he intends to continue advocating many of the same causes after leaving office.
“So, on January 1st, when I am no longer Secretary-General, be sure of this. Wherever I will be, whatever I will be doing – I will keep championing the conviction that peace is possible,” he said. “I will continue to stand up for the values of the United Nations Charter and I will never, ever give up. Thank you.”
He also concluded with the broader pledge that “wherever I will be, whatever I will be doing, I will keep championing the conviction that peace is possible, that human dignity is universal, that the power of law must prevail over the law of power, and that our common future is worth fighting for.”
For Guterres, Tuesday’s address served as both a defense of his record and a final statement of the international order he believes should follow him — one built around stronger multilateral institutions, international law, climate action, institutional reform and greater collective oversight of rapidly advancing technologies.
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