South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, host of this weekend's gathering of Group of 20 leaders, said on Saturday there was "overwhelming consensus" for a summit declaration despite the United States boycotting the event,
Reuters reports.
G20 envoys drew up a draft leaders' declaration on Friday without U.S. input, four sources familiar with the matter said, in a surprise move that a senior White House official described as "shameful".
One of those sources confirmed that the draft made references to climate change, despite objections from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, who doubts the scientific consensus that warming is caused by human activities.
In opening remarks to the Johannesburg summit, Ramaphosa said: "There's been overwhelming consensus and agreement that one of the other tasks we should undertake right at the beginning is to ... adopt our declaration."
He thanked all delegations who had worked together with South Africa "in good faith to produce a worthy G20 outcome document".
"We should not allow anything to diminish the value, the stature and the impact of the first African G20 presidency," he continued.
