Ban Ki-moon, Deputy Chair of The Elders, was Secretary-General of the United Nations from 2007-2016, prior to which he was South Korea’s foreign minister. A career diplomat, he previously served as Director of the UN’s International Organizations and Treaties Bureau, Vice Chairman of the South-North Joint Nuclear Control Commission, and South Korean National Security Adviser.
NEW YORK – Late next month, a child will be born – the 7th billion citizen of planet Earth. We will never know the circumstances into which he or she was born. We do know that the baby will enter a world of vast and unpredictable change – environmental, economic, geopolitical, technological, and demographic.
The world’s population has tripled since the United Nations was created in 1945. And our numbers keep growing, with corresponding pressures on land, energy, food, and water. The global economy is generating pressures as well: rising joblessness, widening social inequalities, and the emergence of new economic powers.
These trends link the fate and future of today’s seven billion people as never before. No nation alone can solve the great global challenges of the twenty-first century. International cooperation is a universal need.
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