Ban, a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations, said the priorities for his second term are the five "generational opportunities" he sees for the the 193-member world body.
Two of them are environmental - promoting sustainable development and sustainable energy for all, and preventing natural and man-made crises and disasters.
The other three are more general - making the world safer and more secure, helping countries and peoples in transition, and encouraging gender empowerment.
Ban will present his administration's plan of action to accomplish these goals to the General Assembly later this month.
In several recent speeches, the secretary-general has recalled his meeting with a boy during a visit last year to the South Pacific island nation of Kiribati - where the land is threatened by sea level rise - as an example of the enormous faith and expectations which the peoples of the world invest in the United Nations. Read the full report here.
Source: Environment News Service, New York.
