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The current serious security risks are distracting attention from the main challenges facing humanity, and the renewed division of the world makes it practically impossible to meet the challenges of environmental protection and combating climate change, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in New York on Monday.
Arriving at the high-level meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council, the Minister said that the world body adopted its Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 to find answers to the “staggering challenges” of preserving the planet, but that these are now unfortunately taking on a different “light”.
If we look at the last 80 years, global security is at its greatest risk now, with the threat of a third world war greater than ever before,”
he pointed out.
“The threat of terrorism is getting higher and higher at the global level, and we are seeing the reference to nuclear capabilities becoming more shameless and more open by the day,” he added.
Péter Szijjártó emphasized that these serious security risks are leading to a renewed dividing of the world and distracting attention from the main sustainability challenges. Moreover, he stressed that the two are interlinked and form a vicious circle, as the division makes it impossible to meet the challenges of protecting the environment and combating climate change.
We, for our part, continue to argue today for a period of interconnection rather than a period of division, hoping that world leaders can make a sensible decision at the last possible moment and move the world in the right direction”
he underlined.
“If the countries of the world, especially the biggest and the strongest, cannot work together in a civilized way, we will not find the answers to the most pressing challenges we face,” he warned.
Péter Szijjártó said that the UN today is addressing the issues of water and energy security, the most important in the long term, because without them “nothing is possible”.
He underlined that Hungary has made particularly strong commitments in these two areas to contribute to the prevention of the water scarcity crises and to the development of secure energy supplies. On the issue of water scarcity, he stressed the importance of technology and recalled that
technologies developed in Hungary are used in water management in many parts of the world, from South-East Asia to Africa.
“We Hungarians are ready to do our part in averting water crises, because let’s not forget that if there is a permanent water shortage in one part of the world, people will move from there,” he pointed out.
Migration flows need to be prevented and water crises need to be prevented to evade migration flows,”
he stated.
Finally, the Minister recalled that nuclear power plants were the only answer to sustainable, long-term energy production. As an example, he said that the expansion of the Paks nuclear plant would allow Hungary to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 17 million tons per year.
Péter Szijjártó also said that in many world political and economic conventions, the debate on the issue is not based on facts, and expressed the hope that the UN will continue to be an exception in this area.
We hope that the UN will take action to end the negative discrimination against nuclear energy in order to ensure a secure energy supply for the world’s growing population,”
he concluded.
Featured image: Facebook/Szijjártó Péter
