G20 (2024) Special webpage

Led by the Brazilian Presidency, the G20 Summit in 2024 is due to be held on 18-19 November in Rio de Janeiro. The world is now facing simultaneous and interlinked crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Moreover, prolonged conflicts and poverty are making the path towards sustainable development even more challenging. The slogan of this year's G20 is "Building a Just World and a Sustainable Planet". G20 countries must come together and take leadership to address the current and emerging challenges related to sustainability, development and common prosperity, whilst avoiding critical situations for humankind and nature.

This special webpage features the outcomes of the G20 Energy Transitions Ministers’ meeting on 4 October and the G20 Environment and Climate Sustainability Ministers' meeting on 3 October, examining key trends related to climate, energy, environment and sustainability.

What's New

 

G20 Overview

The G20, or “Group of Twenty”, includes, in addition to all G7 Members (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and US), member countries of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China, India, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Turkey as well as the European Union and the African Union. The G20 provides an important occasion for ministers to meet and discuss common issues. So-called “Engagement Groups”, consisting of institutional representatives, are working together to propose policy recommendations for the G20 to consider. These groups include B20 (Business), U20 (Urban), J20 (Supreme Courts), P20 (Parliament), C20 (Civil), STARTUP20 (Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Collaboration), T20 (Think Tank), SAi20 (Supreme Audit Institutions), S20 (Science), Y20 (Youth), W20 (Women), L20 (Labour) and O20 (Oceans). IGES is involved in T20 to propose new ideas based on our research.

Perspectives

Senior Policy Researcher ; Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Manager (Deputy Director for SMO-PM)

"New G20 initiative: integrating financial policies and climate action"

Establishment of TF-CLIMA

Under Brazil’s G20 Presidency in 2024, the G20 Task Force on a Global Mobilization against Climate Change (TF-CLIMA) was established to discuss and strengthen the links between the global economy, finance, and climate action, aiming to achieve the 1.5°C target of the Paris Agreement. A Ministerial Statement was subsequently issued in October by the G20 Joint Meeting of Finance, Climate & Environment and Foreign Affairs Ministers and Governors of Central Banks1.

Conventionally, G20 policy issues have been discussed by the Sherpa track2, while international fiscal and monetary policy has been addressed separately at the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meetings. TF-CLIMA worked to ensure stronger coherence between the climate-related Sherpa and Finance tracks, providing a forum for coordinated discussion. This is a significant initiative by the G20, as cooperation between countries in fiscal and monetary policy is essential for promoting climate action.

In recent years, the G20 Presidency has been held by countries in the 'Global South' - Indonesia (2022), India (2023), Brazil (2024) and South Africa (2025) - thus increasing their prominence. This year, Brazil defined the theme of its G20 presidency as “Building a Just World and a Sustainable Planet”, and through the establishment of TF-CLIMA, Brazil has more clearly demonstrated the critical need for funding through global cooperation to support countries, particularly developing nations, in their transition to a just and sustainable society.

TF-CLIMA Ministerial Statement

At the TF-CLIMA Ministerial Meeting in October, the independent Group of Experts presented a report entitled “A Green and Just Planet: The 1.5℃ Agenda for Governing Industrial and Financial Policies in the G20”3. The report calls on G20 countries to commit to new development pathways that reconcile economic growth with climate action and to work towards building equitable global governance frameworks that enable all countries to benefit from green growth.

While the TF-CLIMA Ministerial Statement welcomed this report as an outcome of the Task Force, its content mainly reaffirmed the outcomes of last year's COP28, particularly the first global stocktake (GST), without any new progress or commitments. The first GST agreed to triple the global renewable energy capacity by 2030 and transition away from fossil fuels, but G20 provided no specific signals or directions towards these global goals.

Nevertheless, the Task Force was referenced in the G20 Rio de Janeiro Leaders' Declaration at the G20 Summit held on 18-19 November, and then at the 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (COP29) held at the same time, a new post-2025 climate finance target (New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG)) was agreed upon following a dispute over the total amount of support. This decision calls on all actors to work together to enable the scaling up of financing to developing countries for climate action from all public and private sources to at least USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2035. In preparation, the 'Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3 trillion' was launched and results of this work will be reported at COP30, scheduled for November 2025 in Belém, Brazil, where further Brazilian initiatives are expected. Discussions through the TF-CLIMA could be seen as a significant step in advancing support for developing countries on climate action. The key issue for the G20 going forward will be how to ensure the steady implementation of climate action and the acceleration of financial mobilisation.

From G20 Presidency to COP30 Presidency: expectations for Brazil

Having concluded its G20 Presidency this year, Brazil will assume the Presidency of COP30 in 2025. Brazil will join together with the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan who hosted COP28 and COP29 respectively, to lead an initiative called 'Roadmap to Mission 1.54. This initiative aims to strengthen action and implementation towards achieving the 1.5°C target as well as improve international cooperation and enhance the international enabling environment, so that countries can raise their emission reduction targets. As part of this initiative, the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank held prior to the TF-CLIMA Ministerial Meeting included discussions on the finance gap in climate action.

Brazil, a leader among the countries of the 'Global South', took up the challenge of mainstreaming climate change into the fiscal and financial spheres in 2024. In 2025, as COP30 host, Brazil is expected to lead discussions at the G20, chaired by South Africa, to accelerate the expansion and mobilisation of climate finance, further strengthen and promote change action, and provide direction to the international community.

1. The G20 Taskforce on a Global Mobilization against Climate Change Ministerial Statement (Washington, D.C., 24 October 2024) (https://www.env.go.jp/content/000261051.pdf)
2. "Sherpa" is a mountaineering term referring to "a guide who helps climbers reach the summit of a mountain". For the 'Sherpa Track by Policy Issues', senior officials from various ministries and agencies involved in policy areas, such as environment, agriculture and health discuss and prepare in advance for agreement at the Ministerial Meeting. (Reference: https://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/g20/osaka19/jp/summit/faq/)
3. A Green and Just Planet: The 1.5℃ Agenda for Governing Industrial and Financial Policies in the G20 (Independent Report of the G20 TF-CLIMA Group of Experts) (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/sites/bartlett_public_purpose/files/independent_report_tfclima_group_of_experts.pdf )
4.Roadmap to Mission 1.5 (https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/conferences/un-climate-change-conference-baku-november-2024/troika-mission-15#)

 

"Non-state actors can help bridge the climate governance gap"

Non-state actors have an increasingly important role to play in closing the climate governance gap. A policy brief prepared by IGES researchers titled "Strengthening Engagement with Non-State Actors to Bridge the Climate Governance Gap," underscores the pivotal need to engage non-state actors (NSAs) in playing a prominent role in addressing the climate crisis.

As global temperatures continue to rise, the scientific community already notes that the world is moving towards catastrophic climate impacts if current national commitments are fully implemented. However, the climate mitigation action demands active participation of all stakeholders including all parties as well as NSAs- businesses, investors, city and regional governments.

However, while NSA involvement has increased over the past decade, significant challenges remain in tracking their impact. Growing concerns around the accountability, credibility, and transparency of net-zero commitments by NSAs demand more clarity and attention. The brief calls for a more robust, globally coordinated approach to climate action by NSAs. It recommends establishing a global repository to track NSA commitments, creating a consistent reporting framework, and integrating NSA actions into the national climate planning processes of governments. The brief also proposes the development of a digitally enabled accountability system to monitor the effectiveness of NSA contributions.

While the authors also acknowledge potential challenges, such as the risk of overestimating NSA impacts, competing interests, and the possibility of policy fragmentation, the brief serves as a vital call to action, advocating for stronger collaboration between state and non-state actors to achieve meaningful climate progress.

Policy Brief
Author:
Antony
Froggatt
Cintya
Feitosa
Lola
Vallejo
Zou
Ji
Meng
Qi
Maria Netto
Schneider
The year 2023 marked a concerning milestone in climate history with the global average temperature being 1.45 ± 0.12°C above the pre-industrial average. The Global Stocktake at COP28 showed that the projected temperature rise is expected to be between 2.1 - 2.8°C even if nationally determined contributions (NDCs) of all countries are fully achieved...
 
Research Manager, Integrated Sustainability Centre

"The G20's Role in promoting the transition to Sustainable Energy"

The transition to sustainable energy is one of Brazil's priorities in their G20 presidency. The intention is for the G20 to debate the global transition to clean and sustainable energy in the context of a fair, accessible, and inclusive energy transition. We submitted a policy brief informing this track, where we argue that, given renewable energy's dependency on critical minerals, and given these minerals are unequally distributed across countries, the transition depends on collaboration among countries to address the need for fairness and equity in this process. Importantly, the G20 is a key constellation of both important importers and exporters of critical minerals, and the group is well-positioned to lead discussions and build consensus on how nations can transparently collaborate to ensure a sustainable and equitable transition away from polluting energy sources.

At the same time, the shift to renewables is not without complexities. In the brief, we emphasise the link to SDG 12 on sustainable consumption and production and highlight the need for an equitable distribution of benefits and burdens in the energy transition.

There are negative social and environmental impacts that can result from the international value chains of energy-related commodities, which are essential for countries’ transition towards circular and low-carbon economies. In this transition, developing countries often provide the natural resources necessary for developed countries’ circular economy aspirations. On the surface, this approach offers social and economic co-benefits to developing countries in exchange for the exported natural resources, but resource extraction also causes social and environmental disruptions and risks, resulting in an unbalanced distribution of costs and benefits across the value chain and across countries. This also necessitates collaboration and cooperation among G20 member countries, as the group is well-positioned to propose solutions to this international challenge.

Even though this is a challenging task Brazil can still make meaningful progress on the issue—with the support of other G20 members, especially South Africa, which is slated to take over the G20 presidency next year.

Policy Brief
Author:
Eri
Ikeda
Maria Cândida
Mousinho
This policy brief focuses on the international collaboration necessary to equitably progress towards the sustainable energy transition. In that context, it addresses SDG 12 - responsible consumption and production, and in particular SDG target 12.2 - achieving sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources. Based on recent research...

Related Publications

Policy Brief
Author:
Antony
Froggatt
Cintya
Feitosa
Lola
Vallejo
Zou
Ji
Meng
Qi
Maria Netto
Schneider
The year 2023 marked a concerning milestone in climate history with the global average temperature being 1.45 ± 0.12°C above the pre-industrial average. The Global Stocktake at COP28 showed that the projected temperature rise is expected to be between 2.1 - 2.8°C even if nationally determined contributions (NDCs) of all countries are fully achieved...
Policy Brief
Author:
Eri
Ikeda
Maria Cândida
Mousinho
This policy brief focuses on the international collaboration necessary to equitably progress towards the sustainable energy transition. In that context, it addresses SDG 12 - responsible consumption and production, and in particular SDG target 12.2 - achieving sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources. Based on recent research...

Associated Staff