The BBC says the 140 or so world leaders gathering in New York for their annual assembly have a lot on their plate: Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a global cost of living crisis, a worsening climate emergency, and the disruption of new technologies such as artificial intelligence.

There are disagreements internationally not only over what is most important but also what the remedies should be.

"People are looking to their leaders for a way out of this mess," says Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General.  "Yet in the face of all this and more, geopolitical divisions are undermining our capacity to respond."

A new multi-polar world is emerging, he says, leading to "escalating tensions, fragmentation and worse".

According to the BBC, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky wants to rally support from world leaders in New York.  

The problem Mr. Zelensky and his Western allies face is that many leaders want the annual UN gathering to focus more on the climate crisis and their economic difficulties rather than the war in Europe.

The UN Secretary-General, Mr. Guterres, has recognized this and is hosting separate summits to discuss the world's faltering efforts to reduce poverty and address climate change.

UN members signed up to 17 so-called "sustainable development goals" (known as SDGs) in 2015. These targets - such as ending extreme poverty and tackling the climate crisis - are supposed to be met by 2030.  

Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said US President Joe Biden was "eager" to use his UN speech "to mobilize financial resources for the Global South for development and infrastructure needs".

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Global South is a term that broadly comprises countries in the regions of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia (without Israel, Japan, and South Korea), and Oceania (without Australia and New Zealand).

But Western diplomats reportedly said this week that the UN was also a chance to convince neutral countries that Russia's invasion of Ukraine affected them all, damaging economies by raising food and energy costs.

Meanwhile, some Western leaders have chosen not to come to New York, including President Emmanuel Macron of France and the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Russian President Putin will not attend.  But Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, has come and is expected to defend Russia's self-declared "special military operation" in Ukraine, according to the BBC.