Gathered in India, the leaders of the G20 displayed their divisions. Because if they made a gesture for Africa invited to join their club, they did not manage to agree to denounce Russian aggression in Ukraine or to call for a move away from fossil fuels. We summarize for you the half-hearted meeting of the 20 first world powers.
On the war in Ukraine, Russia spared
Concerning Ukraine, if the final declaration thus denounces the “use of force” aimed at obtaining territorial gains, the text does not explicitly mention Russian “aggression” in Ukraine, an expression used in 2022 during the previous G20 summit in Bali. “As for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the G20 has nothing to be proud of,” criticized Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko.
Reducing fossil fuels is not on the agenda
On the climate aspect, the G20 heads of state did not even manage to mention that they had a disagreement on the reduction of fossil fuels, as their Energy ministers did in July in Goa. They stuck to the language used last year in Bali, calling for “accelerating efforts towards reducing coal-fired electricity production” without carbon capture or storage. This de facto excludes gas and oil.
“This is a terrible message sent to the world, in particular to the poorest and most vulnerable countries, which suffer the most from climate change,” lamented Friederike Roder, vice-president of the NGO Global Citizen. Brazilian President Lula, whose country will chair the G20 in 2024, again recalled on Saturday the “unprecedented climate emergency” that the world is facing due to a “lack of commitment to the environment”.
G20 countries, which are responsible for 80% of greenhouse gas emissions, still declared their support for efforts to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030. They also warned that investments and financing for the fight against climate change must “increase substantially” to help developing countries make the green transition.
The African Union integrated into the G20
The G20 can, however, boast of a major success in announcing the integration of the African Union, which has 55 members (including six suspended) and a total of three trillion dollars in GDP. The continent was until now represented at the G20 by only one state, South Africa. The entry of the African Union into the G20 will offer “a voice and visibility” to Africa, part of the globe which today displays “the fastest growing”, and will allow it to assert its interests and its points of view within the body, Kenyan President William Ruto welcomed on Saturday.
“As a continent, we look forward to further advancing our aspirations on the global stage, using the G20 platform,” the Nigerian presidency, also invited to the Delhi meeting, also reacted on X (formerly Twitter). The President of the European Council Charles Michel saw it as an “important symbol of inclusiveness” and a “major step for the G20, for Africa, but it is not the last step”.