United Nations cuts central heating at headquarters due to lack of liquidity

United Nations (UN) headquarters has cut district heating as part of a policy of cuts it has been forced to make due to liquidity constraints due to some member countries delaying payment of their quotas.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Secretary-General António Guterres, appeared at the daily press conference at UN headquarters in New York wearing a scarf around his neck and jokingly said: “I don’t use this scarf as an accessory, but because it’s wearing Cold”. [no edifício]”.

He clarified that the main services of the headquarters were not affected and that if some entrances were switched off after a certain hour, it was due to low traffic in the afternoon.

But delegation sources who work daily at headquarters confirmed to Spanish news agency EFE that there are instructions to shorten meetings in the afternoon to save on energy bills.

“It’s not so much a budget issue as it is a liquidity issue, which has to do with when countries pay off their debts. […]. We are not getting revenues as quickly as we would like,” Dujarric said, without naming any of the non-compliant states.

On January 25, Guterres sent a letter to all member states expressing concern that the lack of liquidity could affect some of the organization’s functions.

“I am forced to take aggressive measures […] to avoid non-payment of our obligations in August,” he said.

Guterres highlighted that 142 states had paid their respective quotas in full in 2023, resulting in overdue payments of $859 million (€794 million), the highest amount in its history.

Guterres’ letter already includes some cuts, such as deferring payments for goods and services, minimizing contracts with consultants and experts, suspending construction and renovation work, and introducing energy conservation.