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Analysis

The G20 Rio Summit’s Solid Performance, after Day One

John Kirton, Director, G20 Research Group
November 19, 2024, 9h30 BRT

The G20’s 19th regular summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on November 18–19, 2024, has been at least a solid and perhaps even a substantial success. This has come from its significant performance on its first priority of social equality, its solid performance on its second priority of ecological sustainability and its small performance on its third priority of global governance reform. It also addressed several critical security issues, artificial intelligence, and its built-in economic and finance agenda. Its progress came more on process and institution building than on policy substance. And the G20 Rio de Janeiro Leaders’ Declaration of 96 paragraphs and 9,095 words, released at the end of the summit’s first day, mobilized no new money to back the commitments it contained.

The declaration opened with a section on the “International Economic and Political Situation” with four paragraphs on the economy, then seven paragraphs on political security. The latter covered in turn the United Nations, the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, Ukraine, “a world free of nuclear weapons,” terrorism and peace.

The Declaration then addressed the first priority in the section on “Social Inclusions and the Fight against Hunger and Poverty.” It had 21 paragraphs for 25% of the total. They covered in turn hunger and food security, poverty and development, taxation, debt relief, health education, culture, digital technologies, gender equality, disasters, and migration.

The Rio Summit’s signature achievement, as intended, was the formal launch of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty. However the leaders’ declaration did not contain a commitment to end hunger for everyone by 2023, as Brazilian president Lula da Silva had repeatedly sought and as the Sustainable Development Goals had too. Nor did the declaration contain any commitments from G20 members mobilizing any money to help meet the Global Alliance’s goals or refer to any such funding pledges. There were only reports that Xi Jinping of China and Joe Biden of the United States had promised money for the cause.

The summit’s performance on its second priority of ecological sustainability was, at best, solid. It was thus well below the stronger performance that Lula and several other members had sought, and that the world desperately needed to combat the escalating, existential threat of climate change.

The declaration’s section on “Sustainable Development, Energy Transitions and Climate Action” contained 26 paragraphs, for 31% of the total. They covered, in turn, climate change, climate finance, the energy transition, biodiversity and forests, waste and plastic pollution, oceans, and the bioeconomy.

The passage on forests stressed the importance of – but did not commit to – “enhanced efforts towards halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2023.” This passage contained the only reference to Indigenous Peoples, promising to take into account their “social and economic challenges.”  

On the critical issue of ending fossil fuel subsidies, the commitment was very weak, promising only “We reiterate our commitment in the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration to increase our efforts to implement the commitment made in 2009 in Pittsburgh to phase-out and rationalize, over the medium term, inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption and commit to achieve this objective, while providing targeted support for the poorest and the most vulnerable.” This commitment was due to be delivered by 2014, but now, a decade later, had no deadline for getting it done.

There was nothing on curbing, let alone killing, the use of coal.

The Rio leaders did nothing to break any of the deadlock that had frozen progress on the big issues at 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in Baku, taking place at the same time.

On Lula’s third priority, the declaration’s section on “The Reform of Global Governance Institutions” contained 19 paragraphs, for 23% of the total. They covered in turn the United Nations, the international financial architecture, the multilateral trading system and artificial intelligence. Importantly, they called for “an enlarged Security Council composition that improves the representation of the underrepresented and unrepresented regions and groups, such as Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean.” However, on reforming International Monetary Fund members’ quotas, the deadline for proposing “possible approaches as a guide for further quota realignment, including through a new quota formula,” was delayed from its previous deadline of December 2023 to June 2025.

These were the results of the Rio Summit at the end of its first day, when the leaders’ declaration was released. There could be more, and an adjusted assessment of its performance, after the leaders’ final working session of sustainability on the morning of their second day, followed by receiving reports, lunch, and the closing ceremony, and after they have given their final press conferences – and after all the commitments in G20 Rio de Janeiro Leaders’ Declaration have been identified.   

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