Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Nov. 20, 2024 (Lusa) - Portugal's prime minister, Luís Montenegro, has argued that Brazil's presidency of the G20 was "a success" because it focussed on issues such as combatting poverty and hunger, and that Portugal's participation in the summit as a guest contributed to "more consensual and fruitful solutions" being achieved.
Montenegro was speaking at a news conference at the end of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, which Portugal attended for the first time as an observer at the invitation of the Brazilian presidency.
"The fight against poverty, the fight against hunger, the commitment to greater food sovereignty as a condition for greater equality, the contribution to harnessing the potential of artificial intelligence, the preservation of the climate, the responsibility we have towards future generations - it was a presidency that succeeded, that succeeded," said the prime minister, congratulating the Brazilian people and their president, Luís Inácio Lula da Silva.
Montenegro also wished the next holder of the G20 presidency, South Africa, well - highlighting the fact that an African country is taking over and stressing that the challenges posed at the meeting by Brazil are most pressing.
Taking stock of Portugal's own participation, the prime minister said that the country had always been at the "forefront" so that the conclusions of the meeting could "not only be as consensual as possible, but also as fruitful as possible for the coming years."
As well as being a founding member of the Alliance to Combat Hunger and Poverty launched by Brazil at the summit, Montenegro said, Portugal participated on Tuesday in a fringe meeting along with countries such as Brazil, Spain, India and Italy, as well as the World Health Organisation, on the use of AI.
"Our aim is to equip our public administration with the tools that artificial intelligence gives us so that we can be more effective in responding to the demands of citizens and also to the demands of companies," said Montenegro, adding that the cooperation now established is an important tool for sharing solutions.
The prime minister also emphasised the speech he made in the third and final G20 working session, dedicated to climate change and the energy transition, in which he said he shared Portugal's National Climate and Energy Plan and the country's goals of achieving carbon neutrality by 2045, a 55% reduction in emissions from 2005 levels by 2030, and 51% renewable energy in Portugal's overall energy consumption by the end of the current decade.
On this subject, Montenegro said that there was curiosity on the part of foreign governments about Portugal's programme to convert the debt of some countries into climate investments "to produce gains, protect the environment and foster renewable energies" in the context of its foreign aid programmes.
"It's already working with Cabo Verde, it's about to be implemented in São Tomé and Príncipe, and I believe that the experience I've had the opportunity to share can be an inspiration for other countries in the context of their foreign aid policies," he said.
Montenegro said that he had also reiterated, before the G20 members and guest countries, his government's position on collaborating "with all the initiatives in the field of climate and energy transition associated with the preservation of the oceans, of maritime biodiversity.
"We have every interest in deepening, as we have been doing with other countries, the ways in which we can, on the one hand, preserve maritime biodiversity and, on the other hand, also take advantage of the opportunities that open up in the sea for energy production," he said.
This year, Portugal has taken part in 100 or so G20 meetings at the invitation of Brazil, at ministerial and technical level, culminating in the summit of heads of state and government in Rio de Janeiro.
The members of the G20 - the US, China, Germany, Russia, the UK, France, Japan, Italy, India, Brazil, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey, as well as the European Union and the African Union - represent the world's largest economies, accounting for around 85% of all gross domestic product, more than 75% of world trade and around two thirds of the world's population.
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