Ban Ki-moon warns 'world is standing on the precipice' of multiple crises

Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the world was facing multiple potential disasters and urged global leaders to work on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals in the coming decade.

Ban Ki-moon said that global leaders should raise their ambition to avoid failures on a range of different issues such as climate change and water scarcity, which have only been accentuated by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

"We are standing on the precipice of all these crises [...] I hope that global leaders should have far-reaching global visions, that we are in this world together, we are all in this together, otherwise, we will all be a failure. Therefore, I'm really urging political leaders to do their best, lead by example," Ban told CNBC.

"The pandemic of course has thrown a spotlight on this issue and it has also really demonstrated that water is a connecting thread linking the myriad of impacts of our crises, whether that’s around infectious diseases or food security, the last year has seen us experience all of them."

Ban led efforts to draft the Paris Agreement for Climate Change in 2015 and said that actions to address the issues set out in the treaty should be sped up.