G20 promises

The Group of 20 (G20) Leaders’ Summit took place in Brazil on November 18-19, with the presence of the leaders of the 19 member countries, plus the African Union and the European Union (EU). The G20 leaders met to address major global challenges and crises and promote strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth. In a joint statement, they expressed “deep concern about the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip”. On Ukraine, they welcomed “all relevant and constructive initiatives that support a comprehensive, just, and durable peace” and condemned the “threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition”. The G20 leaders also called for cooperation on climate change, poverty reduction, and taxing the ultra-rich. However, many were disappointed that the G20 members were divided on who should pay for climate finance and did not make any commitments. They only said that the trillions of dollars needed would come “from all sources”. This comes in the wake of the recent UN COP29 climate change summit in Azerbaijan, where officials had called on the G20 leaders to rescue the stalled climate talks by boosting funding for developing countries that are affected due to climate change.

The G20 leaders represent the world’s major economies that control a large chunk of global wealth and should walk the talk. Pledges are made every year by these economic giants but when it comes to fulfilling their promises, they fall short. No wonder then that there is quite a lot of criticism coming their way for not committing to climate funding. It is good to see them acknowledging the importance of taxing the super-rich but these countries should also realise how their capitalist policies led to serious gas emissions, resulting in global warming and affecting millions of poor people across the world. Anti-poverty group Oxfam lauded Brazil for using their G20 presidency to respond to people’s demands worldwide to tackle extreme inequality, hunger and climate breakdown, and particularly for rallying action on taxing the super-rich. It said that “G20 governments deserve praise for their ground-breaking commitment to cooperate on taxing the world’s super-rich” and added that “this progress on international taxation also means G20 governments should be championing a $5 trillion climate finance goal at COP29 in Baku”. Oxfam asked how they can argue that climate justice is unaffordable with a deal to raise trillions of dollars by taxing the super-rich on the table.

Pakistan’s former climate change minister Sherry Rehman has demanded that the UN should require “internationally determined contributions” from wealthy nations to align with the climate plans of the developing and most-affected countries. According to Oxfam, over the past two decades, the wealth owned by the richest one percent in G20 countries has increased by nearly 150 per cent in real terms, i.e. $68.7 trillion. The top one per cent in G20 countries now controls 31 per cent of total wealth, up from about a quarter just two decades ago. The bottom half of the population holds less than five per cent of total wealth, down from six per cent. This reality should wake up governments from their slumber. These numbers show how the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer with each passing day. It is quite evident from these numbers how unfair the capitalist system is and how it only benefits the rich. Even their governments are beneficiaries of the rich and thus they end up taxing the poor and middle classes while the rich are allowed to amass more wealth. There is a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of the G20 leaders and now they must fulfil their responsibilities instead of shirking from them. The world cannot sustain this unfairness and unequal treatment any longer.