G20 Countries Must Lead on Delivering Financial, Climate Justice, Says Secretary-General, at Joint Meeting of Finance, Sherpa Tracks

Remarks of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ to G20 sherpas and finance sherpas, in Johannesburg, South Africa on 11 December 2024.

I would like to thank you for this opportunity to engage with you as you begin your discussions on priorities for next year’s G20 Summit under the presidency of South Africa.

We have a number of critical opportunities before us to expand social inclusion, tackle poverty and hunger, and drive sustainable development and just energy transitions.

These objectives depend on our ability to deploy affordable, long term financial resources with speed and at scale.

That is why this joint meeting of finance and sherpa tracks has special importance in ensuring that financial decisions support political aspirations.  South Africa’s theme points the way — “solidarity, equality and sustainability”.  Reaching all three goals requires justice.  Justice for the developing world — and justice in particular for Africa and the Africans.

So many of the global challenges we face are deeply rooted in the injustice that the African continent historically suffered.  Being from Portugal, the last colonial country in Africa, I know exactly what I am talking about.

And indeed the challenges are here in front of us.

From poverty, hunger and inequalities…

To deepening conflicts and the climate crisis…

And at the same time, we recognize that the global governance institutions that reflect the world of 1945 and do not adequately serve or represent developing countries — in particular African countries.

Our inability to tackle these challenges and more is eroding people’s faith in Governments and institutions.  And so the message is clear:  Our institutions need an update.

In November, leaders committed, in the Summit of the Future, to reforming the tools of global governance — from global financial institutions to the United Nations itself, in particular the UN Security Council, which lacks legitimacy and effectiveness.

This agenda of reform was clearly reflected in the Pact for the Future, which was adopted at the UN Summit of the Future.

And you are critical to bringing that Pact to life and helping to lead this process of reform and renewal.

How can we do that?

First — the G20 must lead on delivering financial justice.

As you know well, financing is fundamental.

From inclusive economic growth, to supporting industrialization and food security, or addressing inequalities.

The Pact for the Future includes commitments that provide a road map to reform global financial institutions.

These institutions must represent today’s economy — not the world of decades past.  And developing countries must be represented fairly in their governance.

These institutions must also protect economies — particularly vulnerable ones — from global shocks.

It is time to mend and strengthen the global safety net that during the Covid we detected that it was no longer fit for purpose.

And we need to mobilize finance at scale to close the Sustainable Development Goals financing gap.

This means substantially increasing the capital and lending capacity of multilateral development banks, making them bigger and bolder.

And allow me a personal note.  We are all aware that there is not enough money to address all the challenges that we face.  Development challenges, climate challenges, many other dramatic problems that our world is full of.

And when we do not have enough money, the capacity to multiply the money that exits becomes vital.  And that is where I truly believe that an enhanced role of multilateral development banks is absolutely crucial.

When your country puts $1 in a project of support in some place of the world, $1 is $1.  If the same country puts $1 in the capital of the multilateral development bank, that $1 is 5, 7, depending now on how the bank has access to financial markets.

And indeed I am a true believer that we need to make a strong bet in making bigger and bolder, our multilateral development banks, and that the capitalization of the banks is one of the key instruments.

And if I remember well [from] my times as the Prime Minister, when you put some capital in an international financial institution, you do not need to put it in the deficit of your budgets, so there is another advantage for using this kind of mechanisms to multiply the resources that we have and we recognize are not enough for all the challenges that we face.

At the same time, it’s very important to boost concessional funding, but to take into account that not only gross domestic product (GDP) must be the metrics, it’s very important to look especially also at vulnerability, and we have just approved at the General Assembly a comprehensive vulnerability index.

At the same time, we need action to make the debt resolution architecture work in a more timely and effective manner.  We need meaningful solutions to address the debt crisis, so countries can invest in meeting the basic needs of their people and drive long-term development.

The Pact for the Future includes a proposal for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to lead a review of ways to strengthen and improve the sovereign debt architecture in collaboration with key partners.

I recognize all the efforts the G20 has made in relation to the so-called framework.  But let’s be clear, we are far from having an instrument able to address the debt problem that exits at global level.

A number of examples are positive, but examples do not represent the total reality that we face.

And July’s conference on Financing for Development in Spain is a critical opportunity to make progress in all these key areas.  And I urge finance ministries and central banks to fully engage in the preparations for this conference, so leaders can arrive prepared to advance high-impact solutions on financing for development.

One of the problems that we still have in international institutions, and I was Prime Minister and I know how difficult it is to coordinate the Government when you have different ministries with different views.

The truth is that in many of these institutions, countries are represented by different ministries and so the capacity to have ministers of finance fully engaged in the preparation of these international conferences, to make sure that what makes things move is part of the agenda, is absolutely essential.

Second — we need the G20 to lead on delivering climate justice.

Many vulnerable countries are being forced to respond to a crisis they did nothing to create.  Meanwhile, they lack the necessary financial support to seize the benefits of clean energy to spur prosperity and eliminate poverty.

As the world’s top emitters, G20 countries must lead the way in line with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.  But recognizing that every G20 country have to do more in the reduction of emissions.

By next year, every Government must deliver new economy-wide national climate plans and align with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C.

These new plans must cover all emissions and the whole economy, accelerate a just fossil fuel phase out, and contribute to the energy transition goals agreed at the twenty-eighth UN Climate Change Conference.

At the same time, we need developed countries supporting developing ones with adequate, affordable, and accessible finance and technology.

Through meaningful contributions to the new loss and damage fund…

By doubling adaptation finance by next year, as promised…

And by forging new partnerships — like the Just Energy Transition Partnership – that South Africa is a pioneer — to pave the way to a renewable future for all countries, swiftly and fairly.

And we must also ensure that Africa’s critical mineral resources — that can power the renewables revolution worldwide — benefit Africans first and most.

We cannot repeat the mistakes of the past.

The UN Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals, co-chaired by South Africa and the European Union, identified a set of principles and recommendations to empower communities, create accountability, and ensure that clean energy drives equitable and resilient growth, with maximum added value in producing countries.

And third — we need the G20 to lead on technological justice. From digital technology to artificial intelligence (AI), the developing world needs to access and benefit from the technological revolution.

At September’s Summit of the Future, world leaders endorsed the Global Digital Compact to spur progress across all these areas.

The Compact includes the first universal agreement on the international governance of artificial intelligence, ensuring that every country has a seat at the AI table.  It calls for an independent international scientific panel on AI and initiating a global dialogue on its governance within the United Nations.  And it requests options for innovative voluntary financing for AI capacity-building in developing countries.

We need the G20 supporting developing countries as they invest in the digitally driven systems and solutions that their people need to boost prosperity, create jobs and drive sustainable development.

Across all these areas, you — as G20 sherpas, finance ministries and central bank representatives — are essential in helping to set the agenda and ensure that resources are aligned globally and nationally to bring it to life.

I look forward to working with the G20 presidency of South Africa to help transform the words and commitments of the Pact into results for all countries.