RIO DE JANEIRO – The G20 leaders agreed this Monday in Brazil on a final declaration that includes only basic consensus on issues such as climate change, wars, hunger and taxes on large fortunes.
The main economies of the planet also inscribed in the text the proposal of a “Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty” devised by the government of the host president, Brazilian Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
And on the same day that Russian President Vladimir Putin, absent in Rio, raised the possibility of resorting to the use of nuclear weapons after the escalation in Ukraine, which set off the alarms among kyiv’s Western allies.
The G20 text did not represent a catalyst for the COP29 negotiations in Baku, which in principle will end on Friday and are stalled over financing the fight against the environmental crisis and the transition from fossil to clean energy.
“We cannot leave the Baku task for (the COP30 in) Belém,” said the leftist leader before the summit closed.
The next COP will be held in November 2025 in Belém, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon.
Few climate definitions
Although there were expectations that the G20 would help unblock the stalled negotiations at COP29 in Baku (Azerbaijan) over climate financing, the final declaration did not explain whether aid to low- and middle-income nations affected by global warming should be paid for. only the developed countries or also the large emerging ones.
The text also avoided mentioning the commitment assumed at COP28 to progressively exit fossil fuels. Nor did it set new specific climate objectives for the group’s member countries.
Russia absent and Gaza “catastrophic”
The document referred to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, one of the most delicate issues for the major powers during the negotiations.
Although he used the word “war”, he avoided mentioning Russia and appealed to a formula similar to the previous summit, in favor of “relevant and constructive” initiatives for a “comprehensive, just and lasting peace” in Ukraine.
There was specific condemnation of military attacks on “infrastructure”, which seems to be an allusion to the massive attack on Ukrainian energy facilities launched by Russia on Sunday.
But he did mention Israel directly. In its first statement since the start of the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, the G20 expressed its “deep concern with the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip and the escalation in Lebanon” and called for the “removal of all barriers to the provision of humanitarian aid”.
There was no condemnation of Israel, nor was there a mention of the Israeli hostages kidnapped in the deadly attack by that Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7, 2023, which sparked the conflict.
Super rich on the agenda
The Brazilian G20 presidency achieved its goal of including a commitment to cooperation “to ensure that ultra-high net worth individuals are effectively taxed,” albeit “with full respect for tax sovereignty.”
However, the text refers to exchanges of good tax practices, debates on tax principles and mechanisms against tax evasion, without specific references to a global tax on the super-rich as the Brazilian president intends.
Against hunger, even Milei
Lula’s greatest success at the summit was the announcement that 82 countries adhered to his proposal for a “Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty”, Brazil’s priority agenda that was also included in the final declaration.
Earlier it had been reported that Argentina, chaired by the liberal Javier Milei, did not join the Alliance. But finally the Argentine delegation subscribed to the proposal, once it had already been announced.
Instead, Milei expressed her dissent on several points of the final declaration, which she also signed, on issues such as climate, gender and taxes.
