G20 Taskforce Urges Global Panel to Confront Rising Inequality Crisis

A G20 taskforce led by South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged the creation of a global panel to combat inequality, warning that the richest 1?pturing most new wealth threatens democracy and global economic stability.

A G20 taskforce established under South Africa’s presidency has called for the formation of an international body to address what it describes as a growing global “inequality emergency”, warning that widening wealth gaps are undermining democracy and fuelling economic instability.

The proposal was unveiled in a landmark report by the Extraordinary Committee of Independent Experts on Global Inequality, chaired by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. Commissioned by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the committee said the world must now treat inequality with the same urgency as climate change.

“The world understands that we have a climate emergency; it’s time we recognise that we face an inequality emergency too,” Stiglitz said at the report’s presentation in Johannesburg. He added that vast disparities in income and wealth were not only unjust but also damaging to global social cohesion and political stability.

According to the report, the richest 1 per cent of the global population have captured 41 per cent of all new wealth generated since the year 2000, while the poorest 50 per cent have seen their share rise by only 1 per cent. The findings, based on data from the World Inequality Lab, highlight a stark divide that the authors say threatens the world’s long-term economic health.

The taskforce has recommended establishing a Global Panel on Inequality, modelled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to monitor the causes and effects of inequality and provide research-based policy recommendations to governments. Such a panel, it said, would ensure that wealth disparities are tracked with the same scientific rigour applied to climate science.

“It isn’t just unfair and undermining societal cohesion – it’s a problem for our economy and our politics too,” Stiglitz said. “When the majority lose faith that hard work and opportunity will deliver progress, the very foundations of democracy start to erode.”

The committee also warned that 83 per cent of countries, representing 90 per cent of the world’s population, now meet the World Bank’s definition of high inequality. Nations with severe inequality, it said, are more likely to experience democratic decline, corruption, and political unrest.

The report identified a “perfect storm” of factors worsening inequality — from the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine to global trade disruptions and rising living costs. It noted that one in four people worldwide now regularly skip meals, while billionaire wealth has reached record levels.

President Ramaphosa is expected to present the taskforce’s recommendations to G20 leaders when they convene in Johannesburg later this month. Observers say the proposal could become a defining feature of South Africa’s G20 presidency, as the United States prepares to assume the rotating chair at the end of the year.

As the report concludes, the warning is clear: “If unchecked, inequality will do to democracy what carbon has done to the climate — quietly weaken it until it breaks.”