G20 - the Group of Twenty

The group of the twenty major industrialised and newly industrialising countries (G20) has been meeting since the financial crisis in Asia during the 1990s. The countries are represented by the ministers of finance and the presidents or chairmen of their central banks. In reaction to the global economic and financial crisis, heads of state and government came together in the context of the G20 for the first time in Washington in November 2008. In addition to the G8 countries member states include China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, South Korea, Indonesia, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the EU. At the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh in 2009, the decision was made to meet twice in 2010 (in Canada and in Korea) and to organise a G20 Summit every year from 2011. In the beginning the question came up whether the meetings of G8 and G20 should be merged. In the meantime high level meetings for both platforms have been established. In addition to financial issues, the G20 agenda includes other global challenges such as environmental and development policy.

G20 activities in the field of environmental policy

The G8 Summit of 2010 was directly followed by the G20 Summit in Toronto from 26 to 27 June. The heads of state and government declared their support for the UN climate negotiations and recognised the need to exchange best practices for the protection of the marine environment and the prevention of accidents in the context of offshore oil extraction or dealing with such accidents.

At the next G20 Summit in Seoul from 11 to 12 November 2010 topics included protection of marine environments, biodiversity and green growth. Progress was made in the field of climate funding.

At the summit in Cannes from 3 to 4 November 2011 under the French Presidency, funding the fight against global climate change was at the top of the environmental agenda. With only a couple of weeks to go until the UN climate change conference in Durban, South Africa (28 November – 9 December 2011), the heads of state and government of the G20 affirmed their willingness to step up their efforts to establish the climate fund and make it operational. They also discussed a report on climate funding submitted by the World Bank, the IMF, the OECD and regional development banks. The heads of state and government of the G20 commissioned their ministers of finance to report at the next summit in Los Cabos in 2012 on the progress achieved with regard to climate funding. In Cannes the G20 once more discussed improving protection of the marine environment with regard to offshore oil and gas exploration, welcoming the mechanism to share best practices that had been established in the meantime, and support for low-carbon development strategies to foster green growth. The most recent summit, which took place in Los Cabos on 18/19 June 2012 only 7 months after the meeting in Cannes, did not yield many results. Hardly any progress was made in climate funding so that the report commissioned for this summit could not be submitted. The G20 heads of state and government welcomed the results of the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban and demonstrated their determination to fully implement the decisions taken there. They also supported efforts to make the Green Climate Fund operational and acknowledged the efforts in the area of green growth. This topic will remain a priority of the G20. Mexico will hold the G20 Presidency until the end of November 2012. Additional G20 meetings are planned at different levels for the time after the summit. In November, for example, a meeting of the G20 ministers of finance is scheduled where a newly established working group on climate finance will present a progress report on effective ways to mobilise resources for the fight against climate change. Germany would very much like to see the G20 address climate change and its impacts and take an ambitious stance on the matter, since the 20 largest industrialised nations are also responsible for more than 80 percent of global emissions.

Since 1 December 2012 Russia is holding the one-year G20 Presidency. The annual summit will be taking place in St. Petersburg from 5 to 6 September 2013.

The G20 Toronto Summit Declaration 2010

(PDF, 494 KB)

The G20 Seoul Summit Declaration 2010

(PDF, 293 KB)

G20 Summit in Cannes 2011: Leaders Communiqué

(accessible PDF, 156 KB)

G20 Cannes Summit Final Declaration 2011

(accessible PDF, 221 KB)

G20 Los Cabos Summit Declaration 2012

(PDF, 192 KB)