G-20 leaders issue declaration to tackle pandemic recovery challenges worsened by Ukraine war

JAKARTA - Leaders of the G-20 major economies on Wednesday adopted a declaration that seeks to address various challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and exacerbated by Russia’s war in Ukraine, and pledged necessary support to the world’s most vulnerable countries.

As host, Indonesia pushed for a leaders’ declaration instead of a joint communique, and concrete measures to tackle current problems such as food, higher energy prices and inflation.

A joint communique would have to be agreed by all members and seemed unfeasible to attain due to their differing views on the war.

Underlining the

adverse impact the war had on the global food chain,

the leaders supported the Black Sea Grain Initiative, an initiative to transport grain and food produce from Ukrainian ports, as well as a Russia and United Nations Secretariat agreement to ease the movement of food and fertilisers from both countries to the global market, and address supply issues and prevent food insecurity and hunger in developing countries.

“We emphasise the importance of their full, timely and continued implementation by all relevant stakeholders, as well as the UN Secretary-General’s calls for continuation of these efforts by the parties,” the declaration said.

G-20 members are also committed to

addressing food insecurity

by ensuring “accessibility, affordability, and sustainability of food and food products” for those in need, particularly in developing countries and least developed countries.

Under the current “critical moment for the global economy”, leaders also agreed to “stay agile and flexible” in their macro-economic policy responses and cooperation to tackle the common challenges. The declaration also noted that G-20 central banks will calibrate the pace of monetary policy tightening to achieve price stability.

On debt, it also

raised concern over the deteriorating situation

in several middle-income countries and underlined the importance of fair burden sharing among all creditors.

While welcoming a pledge of US$81.6 billion (S$111.7 billion) from the voluntary channelling of Special Drawing Rights or equivalent contributions to support all vulnerable countries, the leaders also invited others with financial capacity to further pursue a goal of raising US$100 billion in funds.

The fund, from members of the International Monetary Fund, will be distributed to countries which have already used up their available resources to recover from the pandemic, but were hit by the food and energy crises, Indonesia’s Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said in a briefing.

On tackling climate change, the declaration acknowledged the need to strengthen the full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement, inviting all parties to step up mitigation and adaptation ambition.

“Noting the IPCC assessments that the impact of climate change will be much lower at a temperature increase of 1.5 deg C compared with 2 deg C, we resolve to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 deg C,” the declaration said, referring to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.