While host country France pitched the conference as a consensus-building exercise, leaders were under pressure to produce clear outcomes from the two-day meeting as economies stagger under growing debt after successive crises in recent years.
Some 40 national leaders gathered in Paris, most from developing countries whose economies have been buffeted by a succession of crises in recent years, including Covid-19, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, soaring inflation and extreme weather events. "We only have this planet and unless you have a plan to live on Mars that I don't know about, then we need to work together to make it better," Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who has led the drive for reform, told AFP.
One key announcement came from IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva, who said a pledge to shift $100 billion of liquidity-boosting"special drawing rights" into a climate and poverty fund had been met. Observers have also hailed the strong leadership role of developing nations at the summit, including Barbados, Kenya and the V20 group of more than 50 climate vulnerable countries, which all came with a suite of ideas.Avinash Persaud, the architect of the Barbados Bridgetown Initiative plan to reform the global financial system, said in the past solutions presented by richer nations had been marginal and like"childish toys".