agreement on entry into the African Union, not on Ukraine and the climate

2023-09-09 17:11:00

Failing to agree on Ukraine or the climate, the leaders of the G20, meeting in India, are choosing to welcome more members to their table. The G20 officially welcomed the African Union (AU), which represents 55 countries, into its circle on Saturday, extending its hand to Africa and India, host this year of the summit, which appears to be the leader of southern countries. The G20 decision was warmly welcomed in Africa. The continent was until now represented at the G20 by only one state, South Africa.

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This integration will give “a voice and visibility” to Africa, and will allow it to assert its interests and points of view within the body, Kenyan President William Ruto underlined on Saturday. “As a continent, we look forward to further advancing our aspirations on the global stage, using the G20 platform,” the Nigerian presidency, also invited to the Delhi meeting, also reacted on X (formerly Twitter).

Fragile consensus

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also managed to have a final declaration adopted even if finding consensus within the G20 is proving difficult as countries are divided on the burning issues of Ukraine and the climate. If the final declaration thus denounces the “use of force” to obtain territorial gains, the text does not speak of Russian “aggression” in Ukraine, an expression used in 2022 in the communiqué at the end of the G20 summit in Bali. “As for Russia’s aggression once morest Ukraine, the G20 has nothing to be proud of,” criticized Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko.

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On the climate aspect, the G20 heads of state did not even state their disagreement on the reduction of fossil fuels, as their Energy Ministers did in July in Goa. They simply called for “accelerating efforts towards reducing electricity production from coal” without carbon capture or storage devices. This de facto excludes gas and oil. “This is a terrible message sent to the world, in particular to the poorest and most vulnerable countries, which suffer the most from climate change,” regretted Friederike Roder, vice-president of the NGO Global Citizen, while the G20 countries are responsible for 80% of greenhouse gas emissions.