There is no legal binding on the decisions, hence G-20 appears ineffective

Barring bilateral agreements, there is no collective obligation on the G-20 members to keep the promises made on the G-20 platform. Even the G-20 does not have any means by which anything can be done to implement these promises. The biggest achievement of the G-20 so far was managing the economic crisis of 2008. Then this group played an important role in controlling the economic crisis. At the same time, G-20 also made some meaningful changes in IMF and World Bank. Despite this, there are issues like climate change on which nothing has been done even after the Paris Agreement. Just like negotiations take place in the United Nations but they have money which can be used in certain cases. This is not the case in G-20.

On the surface, there seems to be a lot of pomp and show in the G-20 meeting. The heads of 20 major economic countries gathered to decide the agenda, but if we look deeply, nothing has been achieved from the G-20 so far. Such economic platforms are more successful only when geopolitical tensions are less in the world. Presently the situation is such that these tensions are very prevalent. The big powers are not ready to work with each other. Bringing them together is becoming a big challenge. It is not that global tensions have affected only the G-20. There is also a deadlock in the United Nations Security Council because Russia-China are on one side and Western countries are on the other. The World Health Organization did not work during Covid because China created obstacles there. WTO is not working. G-20 is a new organization, in which there has been talk of improving the economic conditions, but it has not had any significant impact on the world. Since its formation in 1999, most of the group’s joint statements have remained limited to mere statements. As G20 leaders said during their 2021 summit in Rome, they will limit global warming with meaningful and effective actions, including ending financing of coal power plants abroad. Later in the year 2022, the International Energy Agency reported that coal-based power generation worldwide has reached a new high. Investment in coal is expected to increase by 10 percent to $150 billion. This has increased carbon pollution.

Despite G7 leaders agreeing in May in Hiroshima to accelerate the continued phase-out of fossil fuels, the G20 failed to agree on a roadmap. In 2021, the G-20 supported a major tax reform that included a global minimum tax of at least 15 percent for every country. It also backed new rules that would require large global businesses like Amazon to pay taxes in countries where their products are sold, even if they don’t have offices there. The Global Tax Agreement was a big step but it has not been implemented yet. For some years before 1999, Asia was facing economic crisis, in view of which a meeting of G8 countries was held in Germany and G20 was formed. In this, finance ministers and central bank governors of all 20 countries with strong economies were called. The objective of the organization was to find solutions to global economic issues through mutual discussion. After the global recession of 2008, it was decided that the heads of state of all the countries would also participate in this meeting. G20 Summit is a powerful group formed by 20 countries of the world. It was established in the year 1999. It was created by countries with strong economies for mutual cooperation. Apart from India, China, America, Russia, Germany, Japan, Britain, France, Italy, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Mexico, South Korea, European Union and Argentina. Some international organizations including the European Union are its invited members. Visually, G-20 appears to be a very powerful global organization. Its member countries together have 80 percent of the world’s GDP, 60 percent of the population and 75 percent of global trade. In such a situation, the decision taken in this conference can have a big impact on the world economy, but there is no guarantee that the decision will be implemented. This is the reason why G-20 has not been able to give any concrete direction to the world since its coming into existence. Its member countries may certainly make any agreement among themselves on bilateral or trilateral basis for the benefit of their countries, but it does not seem to have global benefits. For example, India has made similar agreements privately with other countries including America, UAE.

Unless some legal measures are taken to oblige the G-20 group of countries to abide by the decisions taken during the meeting, the relevance of this seemingly massive organization will not be fulfilled. On the contrary, when a resolution is passed in the United Nations Organization, all the countries are obliged to accept it. In case of non-compliance, many types of sanctions can be imposed along with criticism of that country. Its example is Iran. Many sanctions have been imposed on Iran regarding nuclear power. Unless such laws are made to implement the decisions of the G20, this organization will not be able to reach its highest objective.

-Yogendra Yogi