Opinion| Here’s how the G20 can be more than a talk shop
Jiang Shixue
While the grouping did a good job of dealing with the 2008 global financial crisis, in recent years, collective action has been sorely lacking.
Jiang Shixue
Published:4:30pm, 13 Nov 2024
In less than a week, global attention might shift from the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East to Brazil, whereG20 leaders will meet.
Originally an informal forum of finance ministers and central bank governors, the platform was upgraded in 2009, in response to the global financial crisis, to a premier cooperation forum for world leaders. There was no codified list of criteria that led to the “Group of 20”, comprising 19 countries, the European Union (EU) and, as of last year, theAfrican Union. These represent about 85 per cent of the global economy.
The first G20 summit was held in 2008 in Washington as leaders worked to prevent the near meltdown of financial systems in advanced economies as a result of the subprime crisis in the United States. Since then, the summit has taken place at least every year, hosted by different members under a rotating presidency.
As the current G20 president,Brazil has set a theme of “building a just world and a sustainable planet” and announced three priorities: fighting hunger, poverty and inequality, pushing for energy transitions and sustainable development, and reforming global governance. These are all lofty objectives. The question is how the G20 hopes to achieve them.
What the international community wishes to see is not simply a joint statement but collective action. But will the G20 continue to behave like a talk shop?
The successful operation of any international organisation requires three elements: effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy. In the face of criticism, there are five areas the G20 should examine. Russia praise ummit declaration as India meeting closes without Putin and
Chi’s Xi
US, Russia praise G20 summit declaration as India meeting closes without Putin and China’s Xi
First, its image – which needs improving. The G20 did a good job of dealing with the2008 global financial crisis by coordinating its members’ macroeconomic policies. But since then, it has failed to develop from its firefighting role into a steering committee capable of tackling such important issues as speeding up world economic growth, pushing for global economic governance and curbing trade protectionism.
No wonder some complain that the G20 summits are a waste of time, on top of generating a huge carbon footprint just so world leaders can meet in different countries to talk face to face. This kind of criticism has gone too far, in my opinion, but it reflects a need for the G20 to show that it can meet the expectations of the international community.
Second, the developed countries in the G20 should set a better example of promoting global economic growth. The world economy faces many obstacles and the most pernicious is protectionism, which hurts both investment and trade. Sadly, the developed countries seem to have become thevanguard of protectionism rather than the promoters of economic justice.
Notably, both theUS and EU have put up barriers against Chinese electric vehicles, which can only hurt the global EV industry and efforts to deal with climate change. Despite the repeated G20 statements pledging to oppose protectionism, including one just last month, protectionism has intensified, with developing countries as the main targets.
Third, cooperation among the G20 should be promoted in the spirit of “united we stand, divided we fall”. Every country has its national interests and ideals. But they should not be the cause of selfish actions that hurt what Chinese President Xi Jinping has called “the community with a shared future for mankind”. On many important issues from curbing climate change to reforming international financial organisations, developed countries often fail to take collective, “we’re all in the same boat” action.
For instance, the 2021 Rome G20 summit concluded that all countries must take“meaningful and effective actions” to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, but failed to make any specific commitments to meet that target due to the stubbornness of its powerful members. Rather than a platform for consultation and cooperation, the G20 is becoming an arena in which the developed countries choose to find fault with the others.
Fourth, the G20 must learn to prioritise. Its most important issue or issues must be clearly determined. Clearly, each G20 member comes with its own priority for cooperation. Differences are apparent even within developed countries, and across developing ones, leading to a wide range of issues to be addressed.
The joint declarations published after each summit suggest a G20 wishing to become a god who can accomplish every objective, from protecting world peace to stimulating global economic growth, from reforming theWorld Trade Organization to improving the international financial system, from dealing with food and energy security to pursuing the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
It is not easy to solve all the global issues. Therefore, the priority of cooperation must be set. For now, in my opinion, efforts must be redoubled in the push for global economic governance.
Last but not the least, the G20 should realise institutionalisation as soon as possible. Generally speaking, cooperation between and among countries take one of two forms: non-institutionalisation and institutionalisation.
Non-institutionalisation refers to cooperation without formal organisation, with no definite purpose or charter, though summit meetings are held regularly and joint statements or communiques are issued. Without an established mechanism for institutionalisation, the G20’s function is limited to discussions, allowing leaders to pay lip service through non-binding documents.
Changing the habits of the organisation, even remoulding its personality, might prove impossible. But let us hope that, starting from the coming summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the G20 will start to move away from being a talk shop to behaving more like a team capable of action. Otherwise, its international image will be further weakened.
Jiang Shixue
