Divided G20 fails to agree on climate, Ukraine

G20 leaders fail to reach climate agreement amid tensions over Ukraine and Trump's return to power.

G20 leaders failed on Monday (November 18, 2024) to break a deadlock in UN climate talks at a summit in Rio that was dominated by divergences over the war in Ukraine and Donald Trump's impending return to the White House.

Ahead of the meeting, the UN had implored the leaders of the world's richest economies to rescue stalled climate talks in Azerbaijan by boosting funding for developing countries struggling with global warming.

G20 members, who are divided on who should pay, did not make such commitments, saying only that the trillions of dollars needed would come "from all sources."

"The leaders are kicking the can back to Baku," said Mick Sheldrick, co-founder of the advocacy group Global Citizen, referring to the capital of Azerbaijan where the UN climate talks are taking place.

"This is probably going to make it harder to achieve an agreement," he told AFP.

The risk of an escalation in the war in Ukraine and the prospect of a return of US President-elect Trump's isolationist "America First" policies also dominated the talks in Brazil.

U.S. President Joe Biden is attending the summit, but as a lame duck eclipsed by China's Xi Jinping, who has cast himself as a protector of the international order in the new Trump era.