The G20’s Low-Carbon Development Agenda: A Historical Perspective and Key Concepts

The article analyses the transformation of the G20 agenda on climate, energy, and just transition from the earliest summits up to 2024. The relevance of the study stems from the fact that the G20 is one of the leading institutions of global economic governance, including in the eld of climate policy. Examining the documents adopted by the leaders of member states, as well as those produced within the main ministerial cooperation tracks, makes it possible to identify the key factors and turning points in the transformation, strengthening, and expansion of the climate agenda within the institution, as well as the contradictions between members. The study employs the method of comparative analysis to assess the G20’s activities in promoting low-carbon development, as well as content analysis of the nal summit documents. The research demonstrates that the G20 plays an important role in the development of global governance in the eld of low-carbon development. At the early summits, the priority issues were sustainable, inclusive, and equitable ‘green’ growth and recovery, and the need to consider climate impacts when designing policy was emphasized. Following the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, climate issues, the energy transition, and decarbonisation nancing became separate areas and independent goals of the G20, e ectively detached from the broader theme of economic growth. This approach, whereby emissions reduction is essentially separated from the need to ensure economic growth, reached its peak during Italy’s presidency in 2021, when the G7, under pressure from the European Union (EU) and the United States, which had joined forces to promote their preferred vision of climate governance, attempted to transfer its decisions to the G20 agenda. However, such an approach, in which growth and decarbonisation are treated as separate objectives, does not allow for full consideration of national contexts, as required by the Paris Agreement and previous G20 commitments. The existing contradictions within the G20, which are becoming increasingly pronounced, as well as the G7’s desire to impose its decisions and agenda on the G20, are undermining the institution’s e ectiveness and jeopardize its legitimacy and leadership in ensuring low-carbon development.