The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that 1.2 billion people live in countries that are severely exposed and vulnerable to all three dimensions of finance, food, and energy, simultaneously.
Faced with present global food, fuel and finance crisis that now risks plunging millions into food insecurity and poverty, and with growing inequalities among States, Ms. Bachelet called for pressing actions to address the worst impacts and to limit human suffering.
¨I urge us, at precisely this moment of grave and profound threat, to pursue the path we had committed to in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic,¨ she stated.
The 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement must remain our blueprint for this ambition. Within the eight years that remain we must take bold and urgent action to generate the transformative change that is needed to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.
In this regard, she mentioned some pressing actions such as ending inequality and discrimination, since -according to recent studies- the current inequalities worldwide are as great as those of the beginning of the 20th century.
The World Bank had projected 198 million more people living in extreme poverty during 2022 due to Covid-19. Global food prices alone are now estimated to add a further 65 million more people to that total.
While people across all income groups experienced losses during the pandemic, the poorest 20% experienced the steepest decline in incomes. And the poorest 40% have not started to recover their income losses.
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