G-20 is an international platform that brings together major economies of the world. It represents more than 80% of the planet GDP, 75% of the global trade and 60% of the population of the world. The G-20 has been meeting since 1999 and holding yearly summits since 2008 with the participation of major countries across the globe. The summit is important as the heads of various countries come together to discuss the major topics of the world. The Italian G20 presidency has hosted nearly 175 events in 2021, including 20 ministerial meetings, two special meetings on health and Afghanistan with G20 leaders, 62 meetings of working groups, 60 Finance Track meetings, and several other meetings with the groups. Further, the G20 presidency is set to be taken over by Indonesia in 2022 and then India in 2023 the two top nations that define emerging Asia.
The leaders of the group have agreed for meaningful and effective action by them to limit global warming. United States President Biden has expressed his disappointment over China and Russia’s non-participation. He stated, “The disappointment relates to the fact that Russia and … China didn’t show up in terms of any commitments to deal with climate change.” Further during the meeting, the leaders pledged to stop financing coal power overseas but they didn’t set any timetable for phasing it out at home and watered down the wording on a promise to reduce emissions of methane which is another potent greenhouse gas. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who chaired the summit this year on the other hand declared that this is the first time that all the leaders have agreed on the importance of controlling global warming to avoid disaster.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also attended the summit and called it quite fruitful as the world leaders discussed issues like fighting the Covid-19, improving the health sector, boosting economic cooperation and innovation. He interacted with the leaders individually as well. Prime Minister now will be joining more than 120 heads of government at the COP26 and state and will be addressing the gathering about India’s climate action plan.
