Dr. Oulie Keita
Greenpeace Africa Executive Director
When G20 leaders gather in South Africa later this month, they do so at a time when the world is a dangerous tipping point. From devastating floods to rising food prices, deepening inequality and skyrocketing debt in the Global South, multiple crises are converging and the international system meant to manage them is failing.
While world leaders gather in Belém to negotiate higher climate ambition and the financing needed to achieve it, negotiators in Nairobi are working to establish fair and just global tax rules that could help to unlock trillions that could help mobilise those additional resources.
Governments lament there isn’t enough money to meet these challenges. Yet the truth is different. There is clearly enough money to tackle the climate crisis and ensure that everyone has the opportunity to thrive but it is in the wrong hands of the super-rich.
New analysis published in a recently released G20 report shows that between 2000 and 2024, the world’s top 1% captured 41% of all new wealth, while just 1% went to the bottom 50%. An Oxfam report found that over the last five years in Africa, the five richest African billionaires have increased their wealth by 88%. Meanwhile, billions, especially in Africa and the global majority, are left behind as their standard of living declines and public systems crumble.
These are not just statistics. It’s the reality we are confronted with. It is a precarious situation for humanity when just a handful of people hoard a greater part of the world’s wealth.
Furthermore, billionaires’ wealth is not fairly created or gained, it is because of an unfair and exploitative system that is rigged in their favour. It has been estimated that countries are losing US$492 billion in tax a year to multinational corporations and wealthy individuals using tax havens to underpay tax. Across Africa, governments lose billions of dollars each year through illicit financial flows, aggressive tax planning, and evasion by multinational companies.
Instead, citizens are told to tighten their belts while paying higher consumption taxes, enduring cuts to public services, and facing fossil fuel levies that erode their already limited purchasing power. This is neither fair nor sustainable.
Africa’s Opportunity
Earlier this year, South Africa supported Spain and Brazil’s joint initiative as part of the Seville Platform for Action, which highlights the need to address the problem of growing extreme inequality and achieve greater wealth redistribution through progressive tax systems.
The measure is in line with the G20 agreement reached in Rio de Janeiro in 2024, where for the first time they agreed to cooperate in implementing an effective tax agenda for high-net-worth individuals. The Brazilian G20 presidency in 2024 had proposed a 2% tax on billionaires, which was estimated to raise up to US$250 billion dollars a year, and secured a leaders’ statement supporting higher taxation of the ultra-rich.
Now, President Cyril Ramaphosa has a historic opportunity to turn that moral leadership into action and put action behind the words. The G20, representing 80 percent of the global economy, cannot afford to be another forum for empty promises or a photo opportunity for the powerful. This is the moment for decisive steps that show real commitment and tangible actions to fairness, climate justice and global cooperation. Despite deep geopolitical divisions, foreign policy shifts, and global leadership crisis, it can still be a turning point for multilateralism that works for people and the planet.
A UN Tax Treaty for fairer global tax rules
Governments must take concrete steps to ensure that the tax burden is more equitably shared, particularly by the ultra-wealthy and the most polluting corporations. Endorsing the UN Tax Convention as the legitimate platform for developing global tax rules is a necessary step toward that goal.
The current OECD-led frameworks are largely shaped and dominated by a few advanced economies to work in their favour. A UN-led process offers every nation an equal voice in designing a fairer and more inclusive system of global taxation. Crucially, this effort must remain focused on its broader purpose: establishing tax rules that advance sustainable development in all its dimensions, while mobilising the additional financial resources required for effective climate action and environmental protection.
The Africa Group at the United Nations has taken a pivotal step by initiating the process to establish a new, legally binding UN tax treaty aimed at addressing systemic inequalities in global finance and governance. These imbalances have long constrained many African and Global South countries from generating sufficient revenue to fund essential public services, and nature conservation. This initiative represents a critical opportunity for Africa to advance the cause of tax justice and to secure global commitments to sustainable development
Tax evasion by the ultra-wealthy is a global challenge that demands coordinated political will. Its inherently cross-border nature makes it impossible for any single nation to tackle alone. As host of the 2025 G20 Summit, South Africa is uniquely positioned to lead by example to advocating for binding commitments among G20 members to strengthen the taxation of the super-rich, close persistent loopholes, and advance global transparency measures to curb the use of tax havens.
Inaction, however, would carry a grave message: that safeguarding the wealth of billionaires takes precedence over investing in hospitals, schools, and climate resilience.
From Africa to the World: A Call to Action
The world will be watching South Africa this month, a nation that has for a long time championed justice-oriented reforms. President Ramaphosa must ensure Africa’s voice is not only heard but shapes a fair, green and sustainable future for all. This is a moment to lead boldly, not cautiously, and to insist that justice in wealth means justice in opportunity.
A fair global tax system is not a concession to the Global South. It is a global public good. The ultra rich must finally contribute their fair share to repair and sustain the world from which their prosperity has been derived.
At G20 2025, with South Africa at the helm, leaders have a choice. They can preserve a broken system that protects privilege or build a new one that serves people, nature, and the planet.
