G20 Backs Climate Declaration as US Boycotts Summit

The G20 summit in South Africa adopted a wide-ranging declaration addressing the climate crisis, global debt distress and other pressing challenges on Saturday, despite an outright boycott and firm opposition from the United States. The statement was finalised without any US input, prompting a White House official to denounce the move as “shameful.”

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson confirmed that the declaration “cannot be renegotiated,” highlighting deepening tensions between Pretoria and the Trump administration. He said negotiators had spent the entire year working toward consensus, with the past week involving “intense” efforts to secure agreement among member states.

Ramaphosa, hosting the first G20 summit held on African soil, earlier told delegates there was “overwhelming consensus” in favour of adopting the declaration. G20 envoys finalised the draft late Friday without US involvement, according to multiple sources familiar with the negotiations.

The language used in the declaration directly contradicts long-standing US positions under President Donald Trump. It underscores the seriousness of climate change, urges countries to intensify adaptation measures, applauds ambitious renewable-energy goals, and draws attention to the crushing debt burdens facing many low-income nations. Washington had signalled it would oppose any reference to human-driven climate change.

The climate commitments were widely seen as a symbolic rebuke to Trump, who rejects the scientific consensus on global warming and has resisted multilateral efforts to confront it.

Opening the summit, Ramaphosa thanked member states for negotiating “in good faith” and stressed that the achievement should not be overshadowed by disagreements. “We should not allow anything to diminish the value, the stature and the impact of the first African G20 presidency,” he said.

The US boycott cast a shadow over the event. Trump refused to send US officials, citing widely debunked allegations that South Africa’s Black-led government discriminates against its white minority. The US president has also rejected the summit’s themes of global solidarity, climate resilience, renewable-energy transition and fairer debt restructuring for developing countries.

Washington’s absence complicated the ceremonial handover of the G20 presidency. The United States is scheduled to host the summit in 2026, but Ramaphosa noted that he would be handing over to an “empty chair,” after South Africa declined a US proposal to send its chargé d’affaires for the transition.

Despite the diplomatic rift, South African officials said the successful adoption of the declaration demonstrated the willingness of most G20 members to uphold cooperative global leadership at a moment of heightened geopolitical tension.