The World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said that a lack of global unity caused a setback in the fight to tackle climate change and poverty.

He said this when he addressed a World Health Assembly which resumed proceedings on Monday.

Tedros said that a great achievement was made when world leaders agreed to the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement, and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on finance for development.

“Since then, the creeping tides of misguided nationalism and isolationism have eroded that sense of common purpose. The Paris Agreement has been undermined; the commitments made in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda have gone largely unfulfilled; and although there has been progress toward the SDGs, too often our efforts have remained siloed and splintered,” he said.

Tedros said that the time was right for a new era of health and global well-being.

“It’s time for the world to heal – from the ravages of this pandemic, and the geopolitical divisions that only drive us further into the chasm of an unhealthier, un-safer and unfairer future,” he said

“The world has reached a fork in the road. We cannot afford to pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at the same rate and still breathe clean air. We must choose.

“We cannot afford ever-deepening inequalities and expect continued peace and prosperity. We must choose. And we cannot afford to see health merely as a by-product of development, or a commodity that only the rich can afford,” he said.

“Today and every day, we must choose health. We’re one big family.”