OPINION:
For four years, the United Nations has been constrained by the Donald Trump administration’s America First, U.N. not at all policies.
That’s all about to change.
And nobody knows it better than the very socialist secretary-general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, whose glee at the departure of Trump and soon-to-be elevation of U.N.-loving Joe Biden is evident in the flurry of messages recently posted on Twitter, almost all aimed at pressing the ripeness of ramping climate change and sustainable development policy.
First, the nod at Biden.
“@antonioguterres spoke to @JoeBiden to extend his personal congratulations to the president-elect. Guterres underscored the essential role played by the enduring close co-operation between the US & the #UN,” @UN Spokesperson tweeted.
Then, the read-between-the-lines. Under Trump, that “enduring close co-operation” was strained; Trump pulled America from the disastrous Paris agreement, for example, as well as from funding obligations for other U.N. programs. The United Nations detested him. Now here comes Biden, with a vow to undo.
“Today,” Biden tweeted on Nov. 4, the day when America was officially withdrawn from the agreement, “the Trump administration officially left the Paris Climate Agreement. And in exactly 77 days, a Biden administration will rejoin it.”
And the United Nations, led by Guterres — the Guterres with a past that includes membership in the far-leftist Socialist Party — is giddy with the turn of White House events.
“@antonioguterres tells @Columbia students: the state of our planet is broken. We face a pandemic, a climate crisis and new setbacks to our work to achieve sustainable development,” the U.N. spokesperson tweeted, summarizing statements made by Guterres at Columbia.
Another: “Making peace with nature is the defining task of the 21st century. It must be the top, top priority for everyone, everywhere — @antonioguterres #WorldLeadersForum.”
Another: “It is time to flick the ’green switch.’ We have a chance to not simply reset the world economy but to transform it — @antonioguterres #WorldLeadersForum.”
Another: “I fully believe that 2021 can be a new kind of leap year — the year of a quantum leap towards carbon neutrality — @antonioguterres #WorldLeadersForum.”
The goal comes with a steep price.
Another: “I appeal to developed countries to fulfill their long-standing promise to provide $100 billion dollars annually to support developing countries in reaching our shared climate goals — @antonioguterres #WorldLeadersForum.”
And here’s the platform by which the United Nations plans its massive overhaul of the world’s economy: COVID-19.
Another: “This is a moment of truth for people and planet alike. #COVID19 and climate have brought us to a threshold. We cannot go back to the old normal of inequality, injustice and heedless dominion over the Earth — @antonioguterrer #WorldLeadersForum.”
It’s a harbinger of things to come.
So America, beware. What’s good for the U.N. goose is rarely good for sovereign U.S.
Trump knew that. Trump lived that. Trump governed on that.
Biden won’t.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.