(VOVWORLD) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday proposed a meeting of key countries to drum up support to tackle the devastating Amazon forest fires, which he called a “very serious situation."
 UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres makes a speech in Biarritz, France on August, 26, 2019 (Photo: AFP/VNA) |
World leaders are expected to gather in New York for the annual UN General Assembly from September 23 to 30. The UN chief urged the international community to mobilize to help the Amazonian countries put out the fires as quickly as possible and create a consistent reforestation policy.
On Wednesday, Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) counted more than 1,000 ongoing fires devastating the “lungs of the planet”. The 40,000 fires recorded in the Amazon so far this year are the most since 2013.