On a meeting of the group, gathered for the first time at UN headquarters, as they are attending the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, Guterres reiterated a call for its members to lead the transition.

“By 2030, global production and consumption of all fossil fuels must decline by at least 30 percent, and global renewable energy capacity must triple,” he remarked.

The UN head welcomed the convening of the Brazilian presidency of the G20 for this meeting and its focus on world hunger, recalling the need to “intensify efforts to end this scourge for the sake of our humanity.”

“It is shameful that in our world of plenty, around one in ten people regularly go a full day or more without food, which is known as severe food insecurity,” he lamented.

Meanwhile, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva confirmed that the encounter is consistent with the fundamental belief that the United Nations “is and must remain the heart of the multilateral system.”

Lula urged action by the powerful group in the face of economic disparities by recalling that in 2022, the difference between the amounts paid by the countries of the South to foreign creditors with respect to those they received was US$ 49 billion.

The official G20 members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Russia, Turkeye, the United Kingdom and the United States.

In addition to these States, two regional groups are part of the alliance: the African Union and the European Union.

Ird/omr/ro/ebr