President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated, this Saturday (22), that the G20 – a group of the world’s largest economies – has the responsibility to develop a new economic model that prioritizes the energy transition and climate resilience. Lula spoke at the G20 session that dealt with disaster risk reduction, climate change, fair energy transition and food systems.
“We are now entering a new stage, which will require simultaneous efforts on two fronts: accelerating actions to combat climate change and preparing ourselves for a new climate reality. The G20 plays a central role in both”, he said in Johannesburg, South Africa, where the G20 Leaders’ Summit is taking place.
“The group accounts for 77% of global emissions. It is from the G20 that a new economic model must emerge. The group is a key actor in drawing up a road map to move the world away from fossil fuels”, added Lula.
Lula recalled that, under Brazil’s leadership, nations are concluding negotiations of the 30th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP30) in Brazil. Civil society representatives, however, criticized the lack of ambition to pursue the climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement, which seeks to contain the increase in the planet’s temperature by up to 1.5ºC, as a limit so that the world does not enter a serious cycle of environmental catastrophes.
One of the main points of frustration was the absence of path map for the gradual elimination of fossil fuels, such as oil and coal, which are mainly responsible for gas emissions that cause global warming. The Brazilian government and, especially, President Lula insisted on the approval of a text that addressed some proposed implementation schedule for this energy transition.
“COP30 showed that the world needs to face this debate. The seed of this proposal was planted and will bear fruit sooner or later. Climate change is not a simple issue of environmental policy. It is, above all, an economic planning challenge”, highlighted Lula to the G20 leaders.
Lula cited the document Voluntary Principles for Investing in Disaster Risk Reductionapproved under the group’s South African leadership, which emphasizes the need for long-term funding for disaster prevention and response.
“Early warning systems are not enough. The climate will test our bridges, highways, buildings and transmission lines, it will require more efficient ways of managing water, growing food and producing energy, it will force thousands of people and businesses to look for safer areas to live and do business”, recalled the Brazilian president.
“Building resilience is not an expense, it is an investment. For every dollar invested in adaptation, four dollars are gained in avoided losses and other social and economic benefits”, he added.
But a resilient world is not made only with infrastructure, argued Lula when defending the fight against hunger and poverty and the social protection of populations. “It goes against our most basic sense of justice to allow the biggest victims of the climate crisis to be those who contributed least to causing it,” he said.
The president also said that Brazil launched, at COP30, the Belém Declaration on Hunger, Poverty and People-Centered Climate Action. In it, three commitments were reinforced: strengthening social protection; support small producers; and guarantee sustainable living alternatives for communities living in forests.
“The G20 can protect food chains through measures such as public procurement and rural insurance,” he suggested during his speech.
Inclusive growth
Earlier, Lula also spoke at the first session of the leaders’ summit, on sustainable and inclusive economic growth. He advocated taxing the super-rich and exchanging the debts of poorer countries for investments in development and consistent climate action.
“It is time to declare inequality a global emergency and redesign rules and institutions that sustain asymmetries,” he said when defending South Africa’s proposal to create an Independent Panel on Inequality, along the lines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a debate led by Nobel Prize winner, economist Joseph Stiglitz.
“This initiative will be fundamental to putting the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals back on track. Without funding, the 2030 Agenda will be nothing more than a declaration of good intentions”, stated Lula.
The G20 is the main body for international economic cooperation, created in 1999 after the Asian financial crisis. In 2008, it also became a political body, with a summit of heads of state and government.
In 2025, South Africa will conduct the work of the G20 under the motto “Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability”, with four priorities: strengthening resilience and capacity to respond to disasters; public debt sustainability in low-income countries; financing for the fair energy transition; and critical minerals as engines of development and economic growth.
The South African presidency also ends a cycle in which all countries will have exercised leadership of the group at least once.
Lula, who attended the first leaders’ summit in 2008, criticized current protectionism and defended multilateralism for global solutions. “Timely interventions and coordination between developed economies and emerging markets were essential to avoid a collapse of catastrophic proportions. But the response offered by the international community was incomplete and produced side effects that persist to this day”, he stated.
“We embarked on a path that repeated the recipe for austerity as an end in itself, which deepened inequalities and increased geopolitical tensions. Now, protectionism and unilateralism resurface as easy and fallacious answers to the complexity of the current reality”, he highlighted.
Agenda
Lula landed in Johannesburg this Friday (21) and held a bilateral meeting with the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, when he congratulated him on his leadership of the South African presidency of the G20. Ramaphosa, in turn, welcomed the holding of COP30, highlighting, in particular, the strong component of social participation.
“Both agreed that the successes of COP30, in Belém, and the G20 Summit, in Johannesburg, represent essential assets for strengthening multilateralism”, says a statement from Palácio do Planalto.
At the bilateral level, Lula invited President Ramaphosa for a state visit to Brazil at the beginning of 2026, when they are also expected to promote a business seminar. “The two leaders recognized that the trade balance does not match the size of the two economies and are evaluating the possibility of negotiations to expand the agreement between Mercosur and the Southern African Customs Union”, he adds.
The South African also expressed interest in learning about Brazil’s social inclusion policies and promotion of food security.
This Sunday (23), Lula continues in Johannesburg where he participates in another G20 session on critical minerals, decent work and artificial intelligence. On the sidelines of the summit, a meeting is also planned between the leaders of the India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue Forum (Ibas). The trilateral initiative was developed in 2003 with the aim of promoting cooperation between countries in the Global South.
Afterwards, Lula leaves for Maputo, capital of Mozambique, where he will make a working visit on Monday (24). The trip is part of the celebrations of 50 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Lula is expected to return to Brazil on Monday.
