By Anjali Sharma
UNITED NATIONS – UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday said that a South African flag-coloured King Protea flower symbolize hope and regeneration is the chosen logo for this year’s G20 Leaders’ Summit, taking place on frican soil for the first time.
“Now is the time for leadership and vision,” Guterres told journalists in Johannesburg on Friday, a day ahead of the official opening.
The G20 bloc is made up of the world’s largest economies, although the United States has announced it will not officially participate.
He stressed that the summit highlights the need for climate adaption and sustainable financing, under the theme “Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability.”
Guterres is attending the summit to push for economic and climate action, as well as an end to spiraling conflicts around the world.
He said that developing countries, in particular in Africa, are suffering from a shrinking fiscal space, crushing debt burdens and a global financial architecture that is failing them.
He acknowledged that after decades of colonial rule, the continent remains “woefully under-represented” in global institutions.
“The G20 can help repair this historic injustice and drive reforms that give developing countries – and Africa in particular – a real voice in shaping global policies, and make global economic governance more inclusive, representative, equitable and effective in the years ahead,” he said.
Mr. Guterres called on the G20 to live up to commitments made in June at the Financing for Development Conference in Sevilla, where countries promised to unlock more finance to drive sustainable growth.
He noted that this would entail tripling the lending power of multilateral development banks, reducing borrowing costs and enabling developing countries to mobilize domestic resources.
Mr. Guterres cautioned that countries have failed to keep temperatures to the 1.5 degrees Celcius temperature rise limit.
“Avoiding more climate chaos means bridging the adaptation gap urgently” and that requires a scale up of financing, namely, the doubling of adaptation financing to at least $40 billion this year, he added.
He said 90% of new power capacity is coming from renewables, while global investment in clean energy reached $2 trillion last year, only a negligeable proportion went to Africa.
“Africa should be at the heart of this clean energy revolution,” he pressed.
Mr. Guterres listed some of the devastating conflicts around the world including in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine and Gaza.
He called for G20 members to use their influence to end the fighting.
“Everywher from Haiti to Yemen to Myanmar and beyond – we must choose peace anchored in international law,” he concluded.
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