UN adopts pact to tackle volatile future for mankind [Video]

UN members adopted a blueprint for the future Sunday to tackle the myriad wars, environmental threats and technological challenges facing humanity that was hailed by the organization as “groundbreaking” but panned by critics as unambitious.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who championed the “Pact for The Future” and its components, billed them as “landmark agreements — a step-change towards more effective, inclusive, networked multilateralism.”

As an opener for the annual high-level week of the UN General Assembly, which begins Tuesday, dozens of heads of state and government gathered for the adoption, which faced last-minute opposition from Russia and its allies.

Leaders pledged to bolster the multilateral system to “keep pace with a changing world” and to “protect the needs and interests of current and future generations” facing “persistent crisis.”

“We believe there is a path to a brighter future for all of humanity,” the document says.

The pact outlines 56 “actions,” including …