November 18 and 19, 2024 will see the next summit of the Group of 20 (G20) in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. Created in 1999, this informal but influential forum has moved beyond its initial economic agenda to unite the world’s most powerful states in the face of global challenges such as sustainable development, pandemics, food insecurity, climate change, and corruption. Together, the G20 states concentrate about 85 percent of global GDP, 75 percent of international trade, and two thirds of the world's population.
The upcoming G20 Summit is one of a series of important meetings on global governance reform in 2024, including the UN Summit of the Future (which took place in September) and the BRICS Summit in Russia (in October 2024). As global geopolitical rivalries increase in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and US tensions with China, the G20 stands out as one of the few fora where great power adversaries still interact and cooperate on a regular basis. Previous summits have led to bilateral meetings between China and the US as well as Russia and the US and have resulted in the conclusion of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor agreement.
Brazil has framed its presidency as an opportunity to advance the positions of the Global South. However, the challenge for the hosts will be to demonstrate that the G20's promise of bridging the positions of major countries of the Global North and Global South still holds in a context of heightened geopolitical tension. Europe should engage constructively in the forthcoming G20 Summit and seize opportunities for a common agenda with Brazil that may emerge around specific priorities.
Brazil’s G20 Presidency Amidst Geopolitical Tensions
In a context marked by a host of global crises, Brazil is seeking to use its current G20 presidency to shape the summit’s discussions in line with Global South standpoints. Global South countries’ participation and influence within the G20 group has been steadily increasing. Indeed, the group’s very expansion beyond economic issues began under a Brazilian chairmanship at the 2008 G20 meeting in Washington, DC. This year’s meeting will see the African Union join as a full member. Moreover, for the second time only, the G20 troika – the group’s framework for steering the G20 process – is made up solely of developing states (India, Brazil and South Africa), which has increased the Global South’s capacity to mobilise specific demands within the group. The presence of both developing countries and traditional powers in the G20 is considered a key asset of the forum in promoting global governance reforms.
Brazil is seeking to use its current G20 presidency to shape the summit’s discussions in line with Global South standpoints.
However, a major challenge for the Brazilian G20 presidency in the context of growing geopolitical rivalries will be to prevent further polarisation between those countries who are members of the G7 and those who are part of BRICS. Tensions between the two groups have been rising over Russia's war in Ukraine, which the G7 has strongly condemned. While the G20 traditionally does not engage in matters of security policy, it has become more difficult to avoid such tensions. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently announced that he will not attend the G20 Summit in Brazil in person, likely to avoid a potential arrest (the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against him in response to Russia’s war against Ukraine).
While the G20 stands for a cooperative world order, this image has increasingly been challenged by the realities of the emerging multipolar era. Past G20 Summits have often had states tone down their language; some summits have even been marked by struggles among members to issue a communiqué. With its current presidency of the G20, Brazil has the opportunity to demonstrate that the promise of informal governance forums to facilitate trust and common ground between increasingly adversarial powers still holds. Its success will also depend on the specific priorities that Brazil sets for the upcoming gathering.
Home Court Advantage? Brazil’s Agenda for the Summit
Brazil assumed the current G20 presidency on December 1, 2023. The country that presides over the G20, a role that rotates annually, now doubles as the host country and agenda-setter for the group’s yearly summit. This high-level meeting is preceded by hundreds of meetings between diplomats, ministers, researchers, government officials, members of civil society, and heads of state and government. Under the slogan “Building a just world and a sustainable planet,” Brazil set three priorities for the group: (1) social inclusion and the fight against hunger and poverty; (2) the energy transition and sustainable social, economic and environmental development; and (3) reform of global governance institutions.
These three priorities align directly with long-standing Brazilian concerns and interests. They mark Brazil's return, after a populist hiatus, to democracy, multilateral engagement, and international cooperation. In this respect, the return of Lula da Silva to the office of Brazil’s president has raised hopes that he will revive a progressive foreign policy agenda centred on the eradication of hunger and the reform of global institutions.
The return of Lula da Silva has raised hopes that he will revive a progressive foreign policy agenda centred on the eradication of hunger and reforming global institutions.
To boost discussions on the best ways to tackle contemporary challenges, the Brazilian government announced the creation of two task forces in the context of the G20: the Task Force for the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, and the Task Force for Global Mobilization Against Climate Change. Through the former, the country hopes to launch a Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty during the November summit. This project, already considered one of the main achievements of the Brazilian presidency, is open to countries outside the G20 and organised around three categories of actions: financial, knowledge-based, and national. So far, G20 members have endorsed the Alliance’s institutional structure and approved its four constitutive documents, including the criteria for the composition of the catalogue of public policies.
The Global Climate Change Mobilization Task Force constitutes another one of Brazil's priorities for the G20. Given that the group’s members account for 80 percent of all polluting gas emissions, a greater sense of responsibility and more decisive collective action are required. The initiative therefore brings together the bloc's two official tracks, Sherpas and Finance, to discuss coordinated solutions and policies that will lead to the effective implementation of the goals specified by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. With the recent re-election of climate-sceptic Donald Trump as President of the United States, this is politically significant, too.
Another theme of the Brazilian agenda is fostering greater inclusion, especially regarding the bloc’s internal organisation. Two new features have been announced to promote stronger integration between the G20’s 13 civil society engagement groups and the group’s official tracks: so-called Midterm Conferences are meant to deliver recommendations made by the engagement groups, and a Social Summit will be scheduled to take place ahead of the next Leaders' Summit.
The Social Summit is expected to bring together the results of different exchanges of experience between non-governmental actors over the course of the year, with the objective to feed these different voices, struggles and demands by communities and non-governmental actors into the G20’s activities and decision-making processes. This initiative is in line with Brazil's commitment to make progress on Sustainable Development Goal 18 (promotion of ethnic-racial equality), itself the result of Brazil's initiative at the 78th UN General Assembly, by aiming to inform policies that reflect values such as social, economic and environmental justice as well as the fight to reduce all types of inequality.
Brazil’s priority to enable greater participation is also reflected with respect to its push for global governance reforms. Brazil aims to promote more inclusive organisations by increasing the participation of women and Global South countries. The issue received broad support from other members, including the EU, during the last G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in September 2024, which resulted in a Call to Action on Global Governance Reform. At the meeting, all G20 ministers reached a consensus on commitments to reform some main international organisations, namely the UN, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Regarding the latter, the ministers endorsed the objective to deepen the debate on foreign debt and revise the organisation’s quota formula with regard to developing countries and emerging economies.
An agenda point that has received considerable attention: Brazil's proposal for a global tax on large fortunes.
A final agenda point that has received considerable attention is Brazil's proposal for a global tax on large fortunes. New on the G20 docket, the issue is part of an effort led by Brazil to achieve fairer and more progressive international taxation. So far, the group has signed a historic document outlining its commitment to seeking local measures to promote tax justice, a move recognised by experts and academics as fundamental to combating inequalities, in accordance with the priorities of the Brazilian presidency.
What Is at Stake for Europe?
While the EU considers Brazil a partner in the Global South, EU-Brazil relations have room for improvement. The EU-Brazil strategic partnership has long been considered dormant, while the EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement is still pending – despite President Lula’s recently expressed willingness to sign it. The forthcoming G20 summit in Rio therefore offers an opportunity for the two sides to promote common initiatives on specific global governance issues.
Common ground emerges on concrete initiatives related to ending hunger, where Brazil’s agenda aligns with the EU’s efforts as a key donor of development assistance and humanitarian aid. For example, EU member states have also supported the Brazil-sponsored G20 task force against hunger and poverty. Moreover, Germany was the first G20 member country to join the Global Alliance and intends to contribute to efforts to promote sustainable agriculture and strengthen social safety nets.
Other priorities for cooperation between Brazil and the EU within the G20 framework relate to the fight against climate change, especially with the looming return of Donald Trump to the White House. Multilateral negotiations on climate at the UN have often fallen short of their ambitions. The Brazil-initiated Task Force for Global Mobilization Against Climate Change seeks to facilitate progress on climate finance and mitigation ahead of this year’s UN climate negotiations in Azerbaijan, which are taking place between November 11 and 22. The logic of the initiative illustrates how the G20 – whose decisions are not legally binding – could be used to revitalise and reform other multilateral efforts, specifically those of the UN.
The EU also supports the reform of global governance institutions. Here, the Call to Action by the Brazilian presidency is an opportunity. Endorsing the document underscores the EU’s commitment to move from words to action. However, due to longstanding difficulties when it comes to reforming the IMF’s quota system, parts of this reform agenda may not be implemented: disagreement between the US and China over how to reform the quotas – and the voting power that comes with them – have so far undermined progress.
Europe should seize opportunities to formulate a common agenda with Brazil around specific global governance priorities.
Europe should seize opportunities to formulate a common agenda with Brazil that emerge around specific priorities. The G20 summit in Rio can serve as a launching pad for concrete global initiatives to address global challenges such as ending hunger or climate change. Here, the G20 and its members can help finance projects alongside national governments and other national, regional or international actors. Europe needs to be aware that for G20 initiatives to be successful, they must be inclusive and incorporate the perspectives of the Global South. This approach is consistent with the G20's unique strength as a forum for dialogue and cooperation on global governance issues between countries from both the Global South and the Global North.
Whether the G20 can indeed deliver on its promise of bridging rifts between great powers – and whether the group can provide the necessary impetus for global governance reforms – remains to be seen. This process is challenging even in the absence of adversarial relationships, and much work will need to be done for it to continue. Now that the next government in the United States will again be led by Donald Trump, this task is more urgent than ever.
The authors are postgraduate students at the Institute of International Relations at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, home of the BRICS Policy Center, where they contribute to research conducted as part of the ENSURED project.
.png)
