The global pandemic has put at risk hard-earned development achievements, the Prime Minister of Nepal told world leaders gathered virtually on Friday for the UN General Assembly, adding that the ones most affected are the smaller and more vulnerable countries. 

Facing constant threats from climate change and wary of the possible spread of COVID-19 to their shores, Pacific Island leaders on Friday touted their own environmental action plans and called for more aggressive climate action from other nations, including rapid shifts toward clean energy. 

The COVID-19 pandemic is a trial, but also “a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not”, Pope Francis told world leaders on Friday, in his virtual address to the UN General Assembly. 

Noting the multidimensional consequences of COVID‑19, as well as ongoing political and socio-economic strife in many countries, Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse told the UN General Assembly that today, more than ever, the world needs a multilateral system that performs better through greater solidarity.