johannesburg
Reuters
—
The Group of 20 (G20) summit in South Africa on Saturday adopted a declaration to tackle the climate crisis and other global challenges, but the declaration was drafted without U.S. cooperation and was criticized by White House officials as “shameful”.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson told reporters the declaration “cannot be renegotiated” as it uses language opposed by the US government, reflecting tensions between Pretoria and the Trump administration over the declaration.
“We have been working on this recruitment for a year and the past week has been very intense,” the spokesperson said.
Ramaphosa, who is hosting this weekend’s Group of 20 (G20) summit in Johannesburg, earlier said there was “overwhelming agreement” on the leaders’ declaration.
Special envoys from the Group of 20, a group of the world’s major economies, drafted the leaders’ declaration on Friday without U.S. involvement, four sources said.
The declaration used the kind of language the Trump administration has long disliked, emphasizing the severity of climate change and the need to do more to adapt to it, praising ambitious goals to increase renewable energy and noting the dire levels of debt service poor countries are suffering.
The reference to climate change belittled US President Donald Trump, who doubts the scientific consensus that global warming is caused by human activity. U.S. officials had indicated they would object to any mention of it in the declaration.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Prime Minister Ramaphosa said in his opening remarks at the summit that there was “overwhelming consensus and agreement that one of the other things we must address first…is the adoption of our declaration.”
“We must not allow any action that undermines the value, status and influence of Africa’s first G20 Presidency,” he said.
His bold tone is in sharp contrast to the subdued civility of his visit to the White House in August, when he ignored Mr. Ramaphosa’s efforts to set the record straight and endured Trump’s repeated false claims that there had been a genocide of white farmers in South Africa.
President Trump said U.S. officials would not attend the summit because allegations that the host country’s black-majority government persecutes white minorities are widely discredited.
The US president also rejected the host nation’s agenda to promote unity and help developing countries adapt to climate disasters, transition to clean energy, and reduce excessive debt costs.
“Multilateral platforms must not be paralyzed due to the absence of invited individuals,” South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told public broadcaster SABC.
“This G20 is not about America. It’s about all 21 members of the G20. We are all equal members of the G20. What that means is we have to make a decision. We here have decided that this is where the world needs to go.”
But in a sign of the many geopolitical rifts underlying the agreement, European Commission Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen warned in a speech about the “weaponization of dependencies”, saying it “will only create losers”.
This was an apparently veiled reference to China’s export restrictions on rare earths, which are essential to the world’s energy transition, defense and digital technologies.
The US is scheduled to host the G20 in 2026 and Mr Ramaphosa said he would have to hand over the rotating presidency to a “vacant” position.
South Africa’s presidential office reiterated on Saturday that it rejects a US proposal to send a chargé d’affaires for the G20 handover.
“The president has no intention of handing over the G20 chairmanship to a junior staff member at the embassy. This is a breach of protocol and is not acceptable,” presidential spokesperson Vincent Mugwenya said.
“The United States has chosen to boycott the summit. It is their choice and it is their prerogative to do so.”
