UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the G20 leaders to lead with vision and passion to deliver on climate and economy actions.

Mr Guterres spoke to journalists in Johannesburg, South Africa on Friday, ahead of the official opening of the G20 Leaders’ Summit, taking place on African soil for the first time.

The two-day summit, which opens on Saturday, comes at a febrile moment in global politics.

“Now is the time for leadership and vision,” he said.

The G20 bloc is made up of the world’s largest economies, though the United States has announced it will not officially participate.

This year’s summit highlights the need for climate adaption and sustainable financing, under the theme “Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability.”

The UN chief is attending the summit to push for economic and climate action, as well as an end to spiralling conflicts around the world.

Mr Guterres noted that developing countries, especially in Africa, are suffering from a shrinking fiscal space, crushing debt burdens and a global financial architecture that is failing them.

The UN chief lamented that after decades of colonial rule, the continent remains “woefully under-represented” in global institutions.

He said, “The G20 can help repair this historic injustice and drive reforms that give developing countries – and Africa in particular – a real voice in shaping global policies, and make global economic governance more inclusive, representative, equitable and effective in the years ahead.’’

Mr Guterres called on the G20 to live up to commitments made in June at the Financing for Development Conference where countries promised to unlock more finance to drive sustainable growth.

That would entail tripling the lending power of multilateral development banks, reducing borrowing costs and enabling developing countries to mobilise domestic resources.

Mr Guterres cautioned that countries failed to keep temperatures to the 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature rise limit.

He stated, “Avoiding more climate chaos means bridging the adaptation gap – urgently” and that requires a scale up of financing, namely, the doubling of adaptation financing to at least $40 billion this year.

He added that while 90 per cent of new power capacity is coming from renewables, while global investment in clean energy reached $2 trillion last year, only a negligeable proportion went to Africa.

“Africa should be at the heart of this clean energy revolution,” he pressed.

Listing some of the most devastating conflicts around the world including in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine and Gaza, Mr Guterres called on G20 members to use their influence to end the fighting.

“Everywhere – from Haiti to Yemen to Myanmar and beyond – we must choose peace anchored on international law,” he noted.

(NAN)