G20 Summit 2024: Agenda and Promising Early Signs

The G20 Summit 2024 will take place in November in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. The preparatory Sherpas’ Meetings usually are a good indicator of what to expect when the leaders of the world’s largest economies get together for the main summit. Judging by the early signals, this year’s presidency aims to make substantial progress on climate, energy and financing matters, mainly focusing on the needs of emerging and struggling economies. However, the G20 is a diverse group, and as previous summits have shown, it is prone to making empty promises while simultaneously extending its fossil fuel support across countries that are the most in need of affordable and clean energy.

The 2024 G20 Summit’s theme is ‘Building a just world and a sustainable planet’.

Highlights From the Preparatory G20 Sherpa and Track Meetings 

During the G20 Sherpas’ Meeting in April 2024, the participants voiced opinions on the topics shaping up as the focus for the main G20 meeting in November. Among them were addressing the climate crisis, advancing the energy transition and reducing poverty and hunger. Parties agreed that the current and the following year would prove detrimental to the global response to climate change.

The latest G20 Sherpa track meeting, which took place between July 3 and 5, further clarified the points that will make the final document leaders will sign at the 2024 G20 Summit in November. The participants held more concrete discussions on the main priorities for this year’s presidency, including social inclusion and the fight against hunger and poverty, the energy transition and sustainable development and global governance reforms.

The event also included meetings of the Climate and Hunger Task Forces with the sherpa and finance tracks to ensure a more collaborative and comprehensive approach to advancing the priorities of the Brazilian presidency, including climate change. Between July 22 and 26, specific finance meetings of deputies, finance ministers and central bank governors will take place to further define the priorities for the finance track of the G20 Summit.

For the first time in history, the G20 Sherpa Meeting included sessions that gathered feedback from 13 engagement groups, representing the opinions of civil society, think tanks, scientists and business groups on crucial matters. They highlighted the importance of pursuing a fair and just energy transition, advancing climate justice, increasing female representation, combating inequalities and reforming multilateral development banks (MDBs). 

The Likely Focus Points on the Agenda of the 2024 G20 Rio De Janeiro summit  

According to Brazil’s G20 sherpa, during the meeting, parties agreed to avoid geopolitical topics in the following meetings through October. The goal is to ensure that ministers can focus on pursuing agreements in crucial areas like climate change and sustainable development issues, including reducing hunger and increasing investments.

While some of the concrete topics on 2024’s G20 agenda remain to be cleared out, there are signs that the presidency won’t shy away from thorny and crucial matters. At the time of writing, some of the topics that are likely to enter discussions include the following.

Advancing an Inclusive, Fair and Just Energy Transition

The key focus points that made the Sherpa Meeting’s final document with recommendations for the G20 leaders of state and government included accelerated efforts to reduce emissions and to push for increased use of low-emission energy sources tailored to each country’s specifics. Among the recommendations are moving toward phasing coal power out and expanding the use of CCUS to minimise emissions from fossil fuel burning. Another important focus point is increasing access to affordable clean energy across impoverished communities in low-income and emerging countries.

Based on the G20 Sherpa meeting discussions, exploring ways to advance international cooperation in the global decarbonisation journey is shaping up as another important topic on the agenda. A key focus area in that regard is changing the fact that developing countries currently remain mainly exporters of commodities like precious metals and importers of the higher-value products of the green energy transition like electric vehicles. The working groups emphasised the importance of ensuring that developing countries can also produce green technologies, such as batteries, EVs, solar panels, wind turbines and more, to benefit fully from the energy transition’s gains. Progress on that front would significantly benefit countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines, all of which are exporting components, resources or commodities essential for various green technologies but aren’t producing higher-value end products.

Among the concrete measures that some of the working groups recommended during the G20 Sherpa Meeting and are likely to make the agenda at the main summit is the establishment of a permanent climate action body to monitor the implementation of climate commitments of G20 working and engagement groups. 

Reforming MDBs

Another critical step that the G20 presidency plans to concentrate on is reforming MDBs, focusing on improving the quality of loans based on in-depth analysis of socio-economic indicators. Among the target reforms of MDBs is also introducing caps on interest rates so that indebted developing countries can access affordable capital and not stall their sustainable development.

The need for enhancing the role and improving the functioning of MDBs has been echoed repeatedly before by leading energy organisations like the IEA and IRENA and also at COP28 and previous climate summits.

With the move, the G20 leadership seeks to make funding more agile and less bureaucratic and minimise the foreign exchange risk for economies taking out loans. This roadmap also focuses on introducing financial instruments for addressing major sustainable development issues, including climate, hunger, poverty and more.

It is worth reminding that the G20 was founded due to fears that the member countries would be affected by the massive debt crises spreading across the developing world, especially in East Asia in the 1990s. Now that a similar problem is again on the cards, the G20 can be the helping hand for struggling economies.

More importantly, G20 countries and MDBs have the moral responsibility to advance this measure since reports find that between 2020 and 2022, they have provided over USD 142 billion in public finance to fossil fuels abroad, mainly in poor nations.

Taxing Billionaires

Tatiana Rosito, secretary of International Affairs of the Ministry of Finance and coordinator of the finance track this year, revealed that among the key priorities for the Brazilian G20 presidency is making progress on taxing billionaires. The host plans to initiate a discussion among the G20 and raise the issue within the UN and the OECD.

The initial proposal will include a 2% tax on about 3,000 super-rich individuals. According to estimates, such a move could generate USD 250 billion annually. Measures like these have mostly remained taboo during previous editions and are likely to kick off significant debates. However, according to some G20 finance ministers, including those of Brazil, South Africa, Germany and Spain, the uneven distribution of wealth has a direct link to the worsening of the climate crisis, and raising the taxes on the wealthiest individuals is integral for tackling it.

What Can We Expect From Brazil as the Host of the 2024 G20 Summit

This year’s G20 meeting is the high point of several major global gatherings that Brazil will host, including the Clean Energy Ministerial meeting in 2024 and the presidency of BRICS Summit 2024 and presidency of COP30 in 2025. 

For many climate advocates, having Brazil as the host of the G20 Summit is a breath of fresh air. The country’s presidency follows a series of consecutive climate summits hosted by petrostates, as well as G20 conferences that achieved subpar progress. COP29, which will take place while the G20 is ongoing, will also be hosted by a fossil fuel producer, Azerbaijan.

On the contrary, Brazil’s recent progress on the climate, energy and environmental fronts signals that sustainable development will indeed be a central point on this year’s summit agenda.

For example, in 2023, the country generated 91% of its electricity from clean sources. Hydropower dominates the mix at 60%, while the share of wind and solar is 21% – way above the global average of 13%. The country has the second-lowest carbon intensity among the G20.  

Furthermore, according to Ember, Brazil has already surpassed its target of reaching 84% clean electricity by 2030. It has also crushed the IEA’s Net Zero Emissions goal of having 60% renewable electricity by 2030.

Brazil has also made substantial progress in tackling deforestation in the Amazon, which reached a six-year low in 2023. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has introduced a plan to end deforestation by 2030 and declared his commitment to “resuming Brazil’s global leadership in mitigating climate change and controlling deforestation”. Brazil’s progress on that front can serve as a blueprint for Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, both stalling in their energy transitions and facing major deforestation problems. 

Looking Towards the G20 Leaders Summit

The initial signs are that Brazil’s G20 presidency will aim not to repeat the mistakes of last year’s edition hosted by India when fossil fuel producers earned a victory by opting against a concrete phase-out date. 

The prospects are that Brazil’s presidency will push to make substantial and quantifiable progress on mobilising finance for climate change and sustainable development. The presidency should persuade developed G20 countries to assist developing and emerging markets in dealing with the consequences of the climate crisis and advancing their decarbonisation journeys, with a focus on bringing affordable clean energy to the most vulnerable communities. However, according to experts, the likelihood of this effort to succeed is grim due to the Global North’s established practice of voicing concerns while dragging its feet in terms of actually living up to its promises.

While the G20 summits of the past several years didn’t produce a meaningful communiqué regarding climate action, with the 2025 NDC updates around the corner, G20 Summit 2024 is the world’s best shot to ensure the promises aren’t empty. Missing this opportunity will mean more of the same verbal declarations this time next year while climate-vulnerable countries are left struggling on their own.