G20 leaders on Tuesday were holding the final day of a summit that offered some impetus to stalled UN climate talks, diverged on wars in Ukraine and the Middle East -- and foresaw global turbulence as Donald Trump readies to take over the US presidency. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, host of the Rio gathering, scored a first-day triumph by getting 82 countries to sign up to a Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty he launched. President Joe Biden represented the United States at the meeting, but as a diminished figure, eclipsed by the impending return of Trump as America's leader in January.
Biden even missed a group photo of the leaders on Monday when he and the prime ministers of Canada and Italy turned up for it just after it had been taken. In a joint summit declaration issued late Monday, the leaders did not give a major breakthrough to COP29 climate talks taking place concurrently in Azerbaijan. They did not end a deadlock over which countries have to stump up climate financing, saying in a joint statement the money needed to come from "all sources.
" But they did encourage developing nations represented in Baku by acknowledging that "trillions" of dollars -- not billions -- were needed to help them cope with global warming. The imminent return of Trump, though, was on many minds at G20 -- mixed in with the issues of climate change, an escalation in the war in Ukraine, and economic pressures that are dealing political instability in some democracies. .