Guterres has spoken of crises and wars being waged around the globe before, but this year, his words were particularly grim, reported James Bays, Al Jazeera’s Diplomatic Editor.

“We’ve heard grim speeches by the secretary general before; in fact, I’ve listened to him since he [became] secretary general [in 2017] and it’s been getting tougher and tougher – his speeches, the words he has been using about the situation around the world.

“But clearly on top of everything we have heard in previous years, we have a new one this year, a big one, and that is the war in Europe, the war in Ukraine,” Bays said.

The war in Ukraine is expected to take centre stage at the UNGA this year — along with climate change and nuclear disarmament.

“The Ukraine [war] has complicated things, it has made relationships really hard, you have problems dealing with Russia on many issues. When they’re trying to get consensus on a resolution that’s normally passed every year on nuclear weapons, that was difficult this year,” Bays reported from outside the UN headquarters in New York City.

Bays said he expects these problems over Ukraine play out in public on Thursday because of a UN Security Council called by the French foreign minister.

“All those around the table will be foreign ministers…we’re going to have the Russian foreign minister and the Ukrainian foreign minister sitting at the same table and I’m not sure there’s a lot of agreement there.”

UK Prime Minister Liz Truss has arrived in the US where she will hold talks with US President Joe Biden, on her first foreign trip as premier.

Truss’s visit to the UN general assembly in New York is expected to stress Britain’s long-term commitment to Ukraine and its people with a pledge of at least $2.6bn (£2.3bn) in military aide next year.

Ahead of the trip, Truss said: “My message to the people of Ukraine is this: the UK will continue to be right behind you every step of the way. Your security is our security.”

Her most significant bilateral talks, which will likely set the agenda for the next two years of the ‘special relationship’, will be with Biden after a planned meeting in Downing Street was rescheduled for Wednesday at the UN.

There are some pre-existing tensions over Brexit between the two countries, inherited from Boris Johnson’s government, but both sides are expected to work on improving the relationship.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged wealthy nations to tax fossil fuel companies and use the proceeds to compensate for damage from climate change and provide relief over rising prices.

“Let’s tell it like it is: our world is addicted to fossil fuels. It’s time for an intervention. We need to hold fossil fuel companies and their enablers to account,” Guterres said in an address to open the UN General Assembly.

“There is another battle we must end: Our suicidal war against nature. It must be the first priority of every government and multilateral organisation. And yet climate action is being put on the back burner despite overwhelming support across the world. We have a rendezvous with climate disaster,” he added.

“The hotter summers of today may be the cooler summers of tomorrow,” he warned.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned international leaders of a looming “winter of global discontent” in a world beset by multiple crises from the Ukraine war to a warming climate.

“A winter of global discontent is on the horizon,” Guterres said as he opened the annual General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York City.

“Trust is crumbling, inequalities are exploding, our planet is burning. People are hurting – with the most vulnerable suffering the most.”

Guterres spoke of conflicts in  Afghanistan, where the economy is in ruins and human rights are being trampled. He also mentioned the fighting that has resumed in Ethiopia, and in Haiti, where gangs are “destroying the very building blocks of society”.

“In Libya, divisions continue to jeopardise the country. In Iraq, ongoing tensions threaten ongoing stability,” he noted.

“In Israel and Palestine, cycles of violence under the occupation continue as prospects for peace based on a two-state solution grow ever more distant,” he said.

World leaders are gathering in New York to address the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

The war in Ukraine, climate change and nuclear disarmament are likely to dominate speeches and discussions during the annual gathering that starts on Tuesday at the UN headquarters in the United States.

The theme for this year’s UNGA is “a watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges”.

According to the UN, it “stems from the recognition that the world is at a critical moment … due to complex and interconnected crises”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the gathering was happening “at a time of great peril”, with the world “blighted by war, battered by climate chaos, scarred by hate, and shamed by poverty, hunger, and inequality”.

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