News - Middle East: United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antiono Guterres has warned that the world is in "big trouble," as he opened the largest annual gathering of global leaders at the UN headquarters in New York for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

After two years of pandemic restrictions and video addresses, more than 150 heads of state and government are attending the meeting in person at the UN headquarters in New York City.

Delivering an address to the leaders gathered for the opening day of the assembly's high-level debate, Guterres said that "divides are growing deeper; inequalities are growing wider; challenges are spreading father... we need hope... we need action across the board."

Guterres warned of a "winter of global discontent," and said, “Let’s have no illusions. We are in rough seas."

"A cost-of-living crisis is raging. Trust is crumbling. Our planet is burning. People are hurting — with the most vulnerable suffering the most. The United Nations Charter and the ideals it represents are in jeopardy," he said.

Taxes on fossil fuels to save planet?

With global temperatures rising, Guterres lashed out at fossil fuel companies and the "suicidal war against nature."

The UN chief 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," he said.

Earlier in the day, Guterres cited the "immense" task not only of saving the planet, "which is literally on fire," but of dealing with the persisting COVID-19 pandemic.