Photo courtesy of Number 10 via flickr
By Maahi Jaiswal ’24
Staff Writer
From Sept. 9-10, the 18th annual Group of 20 Summit — an intergovernmental platform that includes 20 of the world’s largest economies — took place in New Delhi, India. Its members include 19 sovereign states alongside the European Union and the African Union. This group accounts for nearly two-thirds of the global population, as well as over 75 percent of worldwide trade and 85 percent of global GDP, according to the G20 Secretariat. It was founded in 1999 following the Asian financial crisis as a call to facilitate global economic cooperation.
Topics under the purview of this group include economic growth, sustainable development and international governance. Currently, the G20 does not have a permanent secretariat and instead has a rotating presidency model. Under this system, the current president, its predecessor and its successor make up the three members of the G20 Secretariat.
This year, India holds the Presidency from Dec. 1, 2022, to Nov. 30, 2023, and will be supported by Indonesia and Brazil. Several countries and international organizations are also formally invited to the summit, including recognized international organizations like the United Nations, International Monetary Fund and others, as well as regional organizations like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. India hosted the G20 Summit this year in over 30 cities across the country.
There were several major developments at this year’s summit, one of which was the launch of the Global Biofuel Alliance. Started as an initiative by India as the G20 chair, the GBA works to increase the use of biofuels through investments in technological advancements and shaping certification standards. It has been created to serve as a body of knowledge for speeding the global uptake of biofuels.
In addition to the alliance’s formation, this year’s summit produced another significant collaboration upon formally adopting the African Union (and its 55 member states) as a permanent partner. Before this, South Africa had been the only African country with representation in the G20. This move was pushed by various countries in the Global South to address the lack of African representation in discussions at the G20 Summit.
In keeping with the spirit of collaboration, this year’s G20 countries also moved to adopt less polarizing language in conversations about the war in Ukraine, Reuters reported. While they agreed that “states cannot grab territory by force” and emphasized the suffering of the people of Ukraine, they did not directly criticize Russia.
Last year, the G20 held a more critical stance when they condemned Russia’s invasion and “demanded that it withdraw from Ukraine.” Many foreign officials stated that there would have been backlash from the Russian Federation if an outright condemnation was issued, Reuters reported.
Prime Minister Kishida of Japan stated that “Russia’s aggression is exacerbating the difficulties of the global economy, including on food and energy, and that the G20 needs to address them,” according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.
In the midst of the climate crisis, countries at the summit agreed to “pursue tripling renewable energy capacity globally by 2030 and accepted the need to phase-down unabated coal power.” However, no major climate goals were set, and no existing frameworks were amended to include new goals surrounding renewable energy. According to the Associated Press, no financial pathways were brought forward during the summit.
Even though the summit successfully produced a final joint declaration on climate change from world leaders, tensions were ever-present between the countries from the Global South and their northern neighbors. According to AlJazeera, French President Emmanuel Macron fervently advised against the West carrying the sole responsibility of climate change work.
Another area of contention between the Global South and the Western countries was the role of multilateral development banks, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The G20 Summit was also not attended by two notable members of the P5 nations, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the Guardian. Nonetheless, the G20 Summit revived the multilateral process in international relations by centering the Global South in the governance agenda.