The United Nations of 2018 exists in a world that is more interconnected than ever before. Countries are no longer insulated from the setbacks and challenges of other nations, and all profit in some way from each other's innovation and success.
Global paths to shared progress, however, seem increasingly elusive among bitter social divides and growing inequality. Our success in overcoming these and other barriers to sustainable development will hinge on our response to two of the greatest challenges of our time — climate change and conflict.
This month's U.N. report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the starkest call yet for immediate and dramatic international efforts to avoid the catastrophic impacts of global temperature rise. From Bangladesh to the Caribbean, the tolls and tides from climate change are rising. The average global temperature over the past five years is the highest on record, and the 2017 North Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest ever recorded, pushing that year's global economic losses attributed to disasters to over $300 billion.
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