G20 Tensions Rise as South Africa and US Clash Over Handover Event
RIO DE JANEIRO – A dispute between South Africa and the United States escalated this week surrounding a G20 handover event, overshadowing South Africa’s focus on global inequality and a just energy transition during its presidency. The disagreement centers on the US’s last-minute decision to hold a separate event for the incoming Brazilian presidency, effectively sidelining South africa’s planned closing ceremony.
South Africa, concluding its year leading the G20, had prioritized increasing financing for a ”just energy transition” – moving away from fossil fuels while preserving economic livelihoods – and improving disaster resilience and responses. President Cyril Ramaphosa commissioned reports on Africa’s debt levels and global inequality, the latter led by nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz.
The Stiglitz-led panel’s report revealed that the world’s wealthiest 1% captured 41% of all wealth generated between 2000 and 2024, while the poorest 50% received only 1%. The panel recommended establishing an autonomous body to monitor inequality and assess policy effectiveness, a proposal endorsed by Ramaphosa, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in a Financial times opinion piece published Thursday.
“Wealth concentration is growing. Income inequality is also a result of that, but we found wealth inequality to be even possibly the biggest problem, as it generates also greater inequality of power,” explained Jayati Ghosh, an economics professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst and a panel member.
Winnie Byanyima,executive director of UNAids and another panel member,stated that the proposed monitoring body,envisioned as similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,could proceed even without full G20 consensus or US participation. “It doesn’t have to start with a consensus, it can start with those who wont to take it forward,” Byanyima said, adding she will address G20 leaders on inequality Saturday.
Meanwhile, protests against violence against women have been held across South Africa coinciding with the G20 summit, with thousands participating in a 15-minute silence Friday to commemorate the average of 15 women murdered daily in the country.
