G20 PERFORMANCE ON ENVIRONMENT 2008–2024
100
75
50
25
0
Compliance (%)
Conclusions (% words)
Commitments (%)
same trajectory: 52% for Osaka 2019, 73% for Riyadh 2020, 88% for Rome 2021 and 82% for Bali 2022. By country, the United Kingdom and Australia lead with 91%, followed by the European Union, Canada and Germany at 87%. A broad middle spans 51% to 79%, with Brazil and Türkiye sitting near 47% and Indonesia near 39%. The pattern shows higher period averages, strong recent summits and a persistent top cohort, and supports expectations of solid delivery in 2025 if new commitments remain specific and time bound. CAUSES A gap remains, however, between rising inputs and real-world outcomes. Since 2021, attention has averaged 15%, decisions have held near 10% and delivery has averaged 84% (with 81% for 2024), yet broad or procedural pledges can register as compliant without producing clear effects. Two corrections are supported by the record. First, G20 leaders should keep ministerial follow-through central to execution: when environment ministers began meeting in 2019, average compliance rose from 53% (Osaka 2019) to 73% (Riyadh 2020) and 88% (Rome 2021), and remained high at 82% (Bali 2022); South
Africa’s 2025 calendar, with three working group meetings and an October ministerial meeting, can sustain that discipline by returning to implementation issues at set intervals and resolving obstacles during the year. Second, G20 leaders can use peer experience to narrow the wide performance gap: top performers such as the United Kingdom and Australia average about 91% compliance, while Indonesia averages 38% and the overall mean sits near 59%; practical exchanges in which consistently high performers (including the EU, Canada and Germany) share working approaches with mid-table and low-performing members offer a straightforward way to lift delivery without changing the current decision share. CONCLUSION South Africa inherits stable attention (15%), a reliable decision share (10%) and high delivery (84% up to 2023). By applying ministerial follow-through and facilitating peer learning across the performance spread, its G20 presidency can increase the likelihood that regular commitments translate into visible environmental gains in 2025.
// SIOBHAN MEHROTRA Siobhan Mehrotra, MSc, is a senior researcher with the G20 and G7 Research Group. She has served as editor and compliance analyst, and was a member of the field team at the 2024 G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro. She holds a master of sci- ence in sustainability management from the University of Toronto and a bachelor of arts in environment and development from McGill Uni- versity. She currently works as a junior analyst at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, pursuing a career in public service. X-TWITTER @g20rg www.g20.utoronto.ca
89 globalgovernanceproject.org
Made with FlippingBook - PDF hosting