In his speech, United States economist Jeffrey Sachs called for renewed global cooperation and lauded China's Global Governance Initiative as key to revitalizing the UN's mission.

"We need to get back to cooperation of the major powers," said Sachs, who is also president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University.

"There is nothing fundamental that divides the interests of the United States, China and Russia. … The ideology is over the top in (the US) — the Russophobia, the Sinophobia, it's just crazy," he said.

Sachs urged China to play a larger role, proposing that the UN open a major campus in Beijing or Shanghai to focus on climate and energy solutions.

"China is the only country in the world that can guide the path to zero carbon energy," he said, highlighting the nation's capacity to scale renewable technologies at levels the world urgently needs.