G-20 Summit’s Failure to Address Global Hunger and Climate Change

• The G-20 summit in Rio de Janeiro failed to address global hunger and poverty, focusing instead on climate justice.

• Brazilian President Lula Da Silva criticized poverty as a “scourge that shames humanity” and called for policies like taxing the’super-rich’.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized that global issues are most acutely felt by the ‘Global South’, emphasizing the need for global administration to belong to the majority.

• The G-20 summit, hosted by Brazil, was the third of the Global South, after Indonesia and India.

• The declaration was watered down due to polarized narratives over Israel’s attacks on Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

• The G-20 was timed closely with COP29 in Azerbaijan, indicating that climate financing and justice issues would be addressed in the G-20 declarations.

• The summit followed just after the U.S. presidential election results, casting a shadow on the aspirations of the Global South.

• The Global South and the quartet of Indonesia-India-Brazil-South Africa must ensure the next G-20 concretizes the concerns of the developing world and sets a future path on poverty, hunger, climate change, and global governance.