World leaders at the 20th Group of 20 (G20) Summit reached broad consensus on disaster resilience, debt sustainability, just energy transitions and critical minerals as they adopted the G20 South Africa Summit's Leaders' Declaration on Saturday.
The announcement of the declaration's adoption was made at the opening of the summit, the first ever held in Africa. The two-day gathering is being held in Johannesburg under the theme "Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability." The declaration warns that increasingly frequent and intense disasters and shocks are undermining development and overstretching response systems, Xinhua news agency reported.
Leaders said they "hinder progress towards sustainable development and strain both national capabilities and the international system's ability to respond." They called for integrated, people-centered approaches and highlighted the need for "strengthened disaster resilience and response," particularly for vulnerable small island developing states and least developed countries.
Energy access and transition also featured prominently. The declaration underscores stark inequalities, noting that "over 600 million Africans have no access to electricity." The leaders support efforts to triple global renewable capacity and double energy-efficiency improvements by 2030, and emphasized the urgency of mobilising scaled-up investment and facilitating low-cost financing for developing countries in line with national circumstances.
They also highlighted the importance of voluntary technology transfer "on mutually agreed terms." On critical minerals, the G20 endorsed a Critical Minerals Framework, describing it as a voluntary guide for "sustainable, transparent, stable and resilient critical minerals value chains that underpin industrialization and sustainable development."
The declaration stresses that mineral resources should serve as "a catalyst for value-addition and broad-based development, rather than just raw material exports," affirming the right of producing countries to harness their endowments for inclusive growth. The leaders' declaration reflects a shared recognition that global challenges require more coordinated and equitable approaches.