G20 South Africa summit sets global action on climate and inequality

With a strike of the symbolic gavel, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday closed the first G20 summit to be held on the African continent.

The gathering broke with tradition by issuing a leaders' declaration on the opening day of talks despite fierce opposition from the United States.

It has been critical of a South African agenda for the G20 that largely focused on climate change and global wealth inequality.

Ramaphosa said the declaration from this weekend’s summit reflects a “renewed commitment to multilateral cooperation”.

"Recognising our interconnectedness as a global community of nations, we have called for an end to conflicts and wars around the globe and for a just and comprehensive and lasting peace,” he said.

In his closing speech, Ramaphosa said the summit had taken place at a crucial time as calls around the world grew louder for “progress on the imperatives of our time”.

This included ending poverty in all its forms and ramifications, reducing inequality within and amongst countries, and taking urgent action to combat climate change.

He said the declaration showed that their shared goals outweighed their differences and was a commitment to concrete actions to improve the lives of people all over the world.

“I now say that this gavel of this G20 summit, formally closes this summit, and now moves on to the next president of the G20, which is the United States, where we shall see each other again next year. The summit is therefore closed."

The wooden gavel would normally have been handed over to US President Donald Trump at the closing ceremony.

But Washington boycotted the gathering because of his widely discredited claim that South Africa is violently persecuting its white Afrikaner minority.

South Africa had said a traditional handover ceremony would not happen because Washington only wanted to send an embassy official, which Pretoria said was an insult to Ramaphosa.

The US is due to take over as G20 president for 2026, and says it will host its summit at Trump's golf club in Doral, Florida.