G20 leaders gathered in Brazil yesterday to discuss fighting poverty, boosting climate financing and other multilateral initiatives that could yet be upended by US president-elect Donald Trump’s impending return to the White House.
US President Joe Biden is to attend his last summit of the world’s leading economies, but as a lame duck whom other leaders are already looking beyond.
The main star of the show is expected to be Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), who has cast himself as a global statesman and protector of free trade in the face of Trump’s “America first” agenda.
Photo: AP
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva would be using his hosting duties to highlight his championing of Global South issues and the fight against climate change.
The summit venue is Rio de Janeiro’s stunning bayside museum of modern art.
Security is tight for the gathering, which comes days after a failed bomb attack on Brazil’s Supreme Court in Brasilia by a suspected far-right extremist, who killed himself in the process.
The summit would cap a farewell diplomatic tour by Biden which took him to Lima for a meeting of Asia-Pacific trading partners, and then to the Amazon in the first such visit for a sitting US president.
Biden, who has looked to burnish his legacy as time runs down on his presidency, has insisted his climate record would survive another Trump mandate.
The G20 meeting is happening at the same time as the COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan, which has stalled on the issue of greater climate finance for developing countries.
All eyes have turned to Rio for a breakthrough.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for G20 members, who account for 80 percent of global emissions, to show “leadership and compromise” to facilitate a deal.
A Brazilian diplomatic source said fast-developing nations like China were refusing pressure by rich countries to join them in funding global climate projects, but added that he was hopeful of progress at the summit.
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