UN Chief delivers optimistic new year’s message

The world continues to struggle with unprecedented challenges from the Los Angeles fires to the Ukraine war, but there are also reasons for cautious optimism in 2025. On a long-awaited ceasefire in Gaza, climate action, gender equality, and more, Secretary-General António Guterres insisted on Wednesday.

In his traditional New Year address setting out the global organisation’s priorities, the UN chief acknowledged that it is understandable to get overwhelmed given the turmoil all around us.

Nonetheless, Mr Guterres highlighted the largely holding ceasefire in Lebanon, the fact that the world now invests almost twice as much in clean energy as it does in fossil fuels, and that in much of the world, girls have achieved parity in education.