Lula officially handed over the presidency of the G20 to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. The South African head of state pledged to continue with the agenda to combat social inequality, hunger, poverty, create sustainable actions to combat climate change and reform the group's global governance.
South Africa to chair G20 for the first time
For the first time, the African continent will host the meeting of the world's largest economies, made up of 19 countries, the European Union and the African Union. In fact, this will be the fourth year in a row that developing countries lead the G20 — Indonesia, India, Brazil and, now, South Africa. As Lula pointed out, “these countries represent views that are relevant to the majority of the world's population.”
This is not an ordinary presidential broadcast. It is the concrete expression of the historical, economic, social and cultural ties that unite Latin America and Africa. I wish my comrade Cyril Ramaphosa every success in leading the G20. South Africa can count on Brazil to exercise a presidency that goes beyond what we have been able to achieve, said Lula.
The Brazilian head of state took stock of the more than 140 G20 meetings that took place throughout the year in 15 Brazilian cities. He highlighted the legacy of Brazil's leadership of the group and highlighted the challenges to be faced.
We launched a Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty and initiated an unprecedented debate on taxing the super-rich. We put climate change on the agenda of Finance Ministries and Central Banks and approved the first multilateral document on the bioeconomy. We issued a Call to Action for reforms that make global governance more effective and representative and engaged in dialogue with society through the G20 Social
G20 leaders sign consensus statement
The G20 Final Declaration was published by consensus by leaders on Monday night (18).
“We work hard, even though we know that we have only scratched the surface of the profound challenges the world faces,” he added.
It is worth remembering that the G20 is responsible for 80% of greenhouse gas emissions. For the first time, the group brought together ministers of Finance, Environment and Climate, Foreign Affairs and presidents of Central Banks to discuss how to face the climate challenge. Brazil has also assumed an ambitious goal of reducing emissions by between 59% and 67% by 2035.
“We already have one of the cleanest energy matrices in the world, with 90% of electricity coming from renewable sources,” recalled the President of Brazil.
Brazilian G20 presidency promises to end deforestation in five years
According to Lula, most of the reduction in Brazilian emissions will come from a drop in deforestation, which has fallen by 45% in the last two years. He has also promised to eradicate deforestation by 2030. Finally, other commitments made by the group include tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030 and establishing a task force on artificial intelligence governance within the G20.
“After the South African presidency, all G20 countries will have exercised leadership of the group at least once. It will be an opportunity to evaluate the role we have played so far and how we should act from now on. It is with this hope that I pass the gavel of the G20 presidency to President Ramaphosa,” said Lula, who recalled the words of another great South African, Nelson Mandela: “It is easy to demolish and destroy; the heroes are those who build.”
With no mention of the digital economy, digital currencies or stablecoins, the topic of tokenized economy was left out of this edition.
“We will continue building a fair world and a sustainable planet,” Lula concluded at the end of his speech.
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