Leading from the Middle

April 29, 2024

GENEVA – Today’s most pressing challenges—as well as the future’s most promising opportunities—are not bound by borders. Strengthening our economies, improving our collective security, addressing climate change, and unlocking the benefits of frontier technologies all depend on cooperative approaches. Yet, the world is at risk of drifting toward a perilous state in which collaborative agendas are replaced by confrontational mindsets.

A more contentious geopolitical climate is of such concern that this past September, at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Secretary-General António Guterres warned, “Global challenges are mounting. And we seem incapable of coming together to respond.”

Indeed, alarm bells abound—for instance, just 12% of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are on target to be met by the 2030 deadline.

Thankfully, though, there are some bright spots.

At the G20 Summit last December, India made it a priority to include representation from the Global South in the dialogue and steered leaders of the world’s largest economies to agreement on a joint declaration on climate financing, global debt, and other issues—this despite predictions that agreement would be impossible to achieve.

At the UN Climate Conference in Dubai this past November—COP28—the United Arab Emirates committed to leading an “inclusive and safe space for all participants” and parties agreed for the first time to transition away from fossil fuels toward renewable sources of energy.

And this week Saudi Arabia and the World Economic Forum are convening leaders from around the world for a special meeting in Riyadh on strengthening cooperation, particularly between the Global North and South.

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