Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth – these are one and the same fight.

Let us take advantage of the opportunities presented by climate action and lay the foundations for a more prosperous and secure future for all

One of my earliest memories is walking up a muddy road into the mountains. It was raining. Behind me, my village was burning. When there was school, it was under a tree. Then the United Nations came. They fed me, my family, my community.

People everywhere look to the United States to use its remarkable power to help lift humanity up and to work for the common good.

As many micro-credit schemes across the world can testify, investment in women is the best investment for the future.

From the Balkans to Africa, from Asia to the Middle East, we have witnessed the weakening or absence of effective governance leading to the ravaging of human rights and the abandonment of longstanding humanitarian principles. We need competent and responsible states to meet the needs of "we the peoples" for whom the UN was created. And the world's peoples will not be fully served unless peace, development and human rights, the three pillars of the UN, are advanced together with equal vigour.

I have been urging the leaders to listen to the aspirations and challenges of their own people, and engage in dialogue and take very bold measures. Normally, to their regret, these measures and bold reforms come too late, too little.