Quick rundown of the G20

Everyone has been talking about the G20 summit for the past couple weeks, but what is the G20, actually? And why all the hype? 

In 1999, the summit began as a way for top international leaders to better cooperate on shared economic goals. However, they didn’t actually meet in person until a decade later. It’s made up of the 19 most powerful countries, the EU, and 6 other guest countries. The summit retains no legal power, so cooperating with goals and ideas put forth is voluntary.

Every year a new country presides and sets the agenda – this year it’s Germany. While it is informal, the ideas and agreements that come out of it affect basically the whole world. Last year, the G20 summit played an important role in the global fight against climate change, as the US and China ratified the Paris Climate Accord – even though it had been negotiated and set forth earlier in the year.  

So… what countries make up the G20? This year it’s Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Republic of Korea, Turkey, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union Council and Commission. 

What did all of these world leaders *actually* discuss? 

1. THE ECONOMY. Because, duh. 
They agreed on a few things, like supporting free and open markets and giving countries the okay to defend their companies against trade partners who take advantage of them. 

2. TERRORISM. 
One of the approaches discussed was to ensure that extremist content was less readily available on the internet. 

3. REFUGEES AND IMMIGRANTS – a topic on which many countries stay divided. 
Many could agree to step up coordination efforts in the face of the ever-growing refugee crisis. Additionally, they wanted to decrease human smuggling and trafficking. 

4. THE CLIMATE. 
Remember how this kind of stole the show last year? Yeah, well, the rest of the G20 are not happy with Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. The rest agreed that the Paris Agreement was ‘irreversible’ and noted the US withdrawal, as well as committing their countries to the G20 Climate and Energy Action Plan for Growth. 

5. AFRICA.
Germany wanted to focus on Africa and a partnership for development. Many in the G20 felt the same, and the G20 Africa Partnership was develeoped, along with initiatives to support Rural Youth Employment, “#eSkills4Girls”, and renewable energy. 

Over the next few weeks we will learn more about the impact the 2017 G20 summit will have on the global good, so stay tuned.