WASHINGTON

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed on Wednesday the upcoming Summit of Future that will be held Sept. 22 - 23 in New York.

"The Summit of the Future is an essential first step towards making global institutions more legitimate, effective, and fit for the world of today and tomorrow.

"I urge member states to seize this opportunity," Guterres said at a news conference.

The high-level conference will bring world leaders together to forge a new international consensus on how to better present and safeguard the future.

"The Summit of the Future was born out of a cold, hard fact: International challenges are moving faster than our ability to solve them.

"We see out-of-control geo-political divisions and runaway conflicts -- not least in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and beyond," said Guterres.

He stressed that there are many more challenges, including climate change, inequalities and debt, and the development of new technologies like artificial intelligence.

"And our institutions simply can’t keep up," he said, adding global institutions and frameworks are "totally inadequate" to deal with the challenges.

"We don’t need a crystal ball to see that 21st century challenges require global problem-solving mechanisms that are more effective, networked and inclusive,” he said. “Change will not happen overnight. But it can start today.”

"We can’t create a future fit for our grandchildren with systems built for our grandparents," he added.