G20's 'unequal table'

HUNGER CRISIS: LEADERS URGED TO TACKLE 'GLOBAL EMERGENCY' >>> Summit confronts a world where 1% claim 41% of new wealth.

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Wealth inequality is a global emergency that threatens democracy and social cohesion, experts warned yesterday, urging G20 leaders meeting in Johannesburg this month to establish a panel to tackle the crisis.

The "inequality emergency" is leaving billions hungry and could worsen under the United States' "law of the jungle" approach to trade under President Donald Trump, a committee led by Nobel Prizewinning economist Joseph Stiglitz said in a new report.

The proposed panel on inequality was inspired by the United Nation's expert Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that analyses the risks and impact of global warming and proposes solutions.

"One in four people worldwide now regularly skip meals, while billionaire wealth has now hit the highest level in history," said the report, which was commissioned for the G20 summit in Joburg.

Between 2000 and 2024, one percent of the world's population captured 41% of all new wealth, of which just one percent went to the poorest 50%, it said.