Lula urges G20 members to take action to slow global warming

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil's president opened the second day of a meeting of the world's 20 major economies Tuesday by calling for more action to slow global warming, saying developed nations must speed up their initiatives to reduce harmful emissions.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's comments came the day after representatives of the G20 nations endorsed a joint statement that called for a pact to combat hunger, more aid for Gaza, an end to the war in Ukraine and other goals, amid global uncertainty surrounding the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

The president of Brazil, the host of the two-day meeting, opened Tuesday’s session focusing on environmental challenges, saying developed nations should consider moving their 2050 emission goals forward to 2040 or 2045.

“The G20 is responsible for 80% of greenhouse effect emissions,” he said. “Even if we are not walking the same speed, we can all take one more step.”

In addition to a $325 million contribution for the World Bank clean technology fund, U.S. President Joe Biden has announced a series of climate and development related initiatives. But many of them would require buy-in from Trump, who opposes such projects and has called the climate crisis a “hoax.”

Biden has also urged G20 members to each commit $2 billion to replenish a pandemic fund established in 2022. Biden has pledged the U.S. will provide up to $667 million by 2026, but that would require Congressional approval.

Condemnation of wars but without casting blame

The joint statement approved Monday night called for urgent humanitarian assistance and better protection of civilians caught up in conflicts in the Middle East, plus affirmed the Palestinian right to self-determination.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants when counting the dead. More than 3,500 people also have been killed in Lebanon due to Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

The document didn't mention the suffering of Israel, which is not a G20 member, nor the 100 or so Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.

Looming large at the meeting on Monday was news of Biden easing of restrictions on Ukraine's use of longer-range U.S. missiles to allow it to strike more deeply inside Russia also played into the meetings.

“The United States strongly supports Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Everyone around this table in my view should, as well,” Biden said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin didn't attend, and instead sent Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Putin has avoided such summits since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant that obliges member states to arrest him.

The G20 declaration highlighted the human suffering in Ukraine and called for peace, but didn't name Russia.

“The declaration avoids pointing the finger at the culprits,” said Paulo Velasco, an international relations professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. “It doesn’t make any critical mention of Israel or Russia, but it highlights the dramatic humanitarian situations in both cases.”

The entire declaration lacks specificity, Velasco said, calling it “a declaration of goodwill” with "very few concrete, tangible measures.”

Push to tax global billionaires, fight global hunger and reform the UN

The declaration also suggested taxing global billionaires, which would affect about 3,000 people around the world.

Brazil's government stressed that Lula's launch of a global alliance against hunger and poverty on Monday was as important as the final G20 declaration. The alliance is backed by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and, as of Monday, 82 nations had signed onto the plan, Brazil's government said.

Leaders also pledged to work for “transformative reform” of the U.N. Security Council so that it aligns “with the realities and demands of the 21st century, makes it more representative, inclusive, efficient, effective, democratic and accountable.”

Virtually all countries agree that nearly eight decades after the United Nations was established, the Security Council — charged with maintaining international peace and security — should be expanded to reflect the 21st century world and include more voices.

The declaration doesn’t specify the shape that reform should take.

Argentina's objections

The clause on billionaire taxes was included despite opposition from Argentina, as was another promoting gender equality, according to an official from Brazil and one from another G20 country, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

Argentina did sign the G20 declaration, but had issues with references to the U.N.’s 2030 sustainable development agenda, which right-wing President Javier Milei calls “a supranational program of a socialist nature.”

Milei also objected to the idea that governments should do more to fight hunger, and said efforts to regulate hate speech on social media would infringe on national sovereignty.

Milei, an outspoken critic of Lula, has recently adopted a Trump-like role as a spoiler in multilateral talks.

Oliver Stuenkel, a professor of international relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university and think tank, warned that Argentina's last-minute approval of the joint statement "gave us a taste of what could come once Donald Trump takes office as U.S. president again. When that happens, Milei will not be embarrassed about troubling international negotiations.”

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Aamer Madhani in Rio de Janeiro, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, and Isabel DeBre in La Paz, Bolivia, contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to show the meeting is scheduled to last for two days, not three.