By Augustine Bamie Anthony, MOICE
President Julius Maada Bio has called for a fair and inclusive approach to climate action, artificial intelligence and the global energy transition, warning that new transformations must not deepen existing inequalities.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, President Bio said the promise of delivering “for all” must apply to the way the world governs emerging technologies and responds to climate change.
Artificial intelligence, he noted, could support advances in education, health, agriculture and public administration. However, it could also widen inequality if infrastructure, knowledge and rule-making remained concentrated in a small number of countries.
Developing nations, he said, must be part of shaping the standards that govern technologies affecting their people.
President Bio made a similar appeal on climate change, asking three fundamental questions: Who benefits? Who decides? And who pays?
He cited the experience of communities in Shenge on Sierra Leone’s southern coast, where families are watching the sea take their land, fishing grounds and the graves of their ancestors.
For these communities, the President said, climate change is not a distant possibility. It is the disappearance of home in the present.
He stressed that countries least responsible for the climate crisis are bearing some of its gravest consequences. Accessible and predictable climate finance, support for adaptation and effective arrangements for loss and damage, he said, are obligations of justice as well as investments in global stability.
President Bio also called for reforms that would make the United Nations more effective, accountable and responsive. While efficiency matters, he cautioned that reform must preserve the organization’s ability to act decisively in response to global challenges.
His appeal reflected the practical and people-centred leadership for which Sierra Leone has become increasingly recognized under his administration.
From climate-vulnerable coastal communities to young people seeking skills and opportunities, President Bio’s message placed human dignity at the centre of global transformation.
He urged the international community to ensure that technology, climate action and the energy transition serve people everywhere—not only those with the greatest wealth, infrastructure or political influence.
