Everything You Need to Know About the G20
The crucial moment of Brazil’s G20 presidency begins on Monday (18th). On this day and Tuesday (19th), the Heads of State of the world’s largest economies will convene to align the agendas discussed by the bloc throughout the year. Brazil assumed the presidency of the "Group of Twenty" in December 2023, a rotating position that changes annually. During Brazil’s term, the main goals have been combating global inequalities, promoting sustainability, and creating financing mechanisms to address climate change.
To facilitate alignment on these issues, numerous meetings were held among representatives of member countries in what is called the G20 "Sherpa Track." Sherpas, originally, are an ethnic group from Tibet whose name means "people of the East." In Nepal, they are known as "guardians of the mountain" for guiding climbers to the summit of Mount Everest. In the context of the G20, sherpas are diplomats chosen by countries to lead discussions. These meetings are divided into 15 working groups covering topics such as Agriculture, Anti-Corruption, Trade and Investment, Culture, Development, Digital Economy, Education, Women’s Empowerment, Research and Innovation, Environmental and Climate Sustainability, Employment, Energy Transitions, Disaster Risk Reduction, Tourism, and Health.
In addition to these groups, the Sherpa Track also includes two task forces—Global Mobilization Against Climate Change and the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty—and an initiative focused on the bioeconomy. The sherpas’ ultimate goal is to prepare the discussions for the Leaders' Summit, the pinnacle of over 100 meetings held by the group throughout the year.
The G20 Leaders’ Summit was established in response to the 2008 global financial crisis, a time when the group’s primary focus was exclusively macroeconomic, led by meetings of finance ministers and central bank governors. Today, this agenda remains active in the Finance Track, but Brazil’s presidency introduced innovations by promoting greater integration between the Sherpa and Finance Tracks. Another novelty was the first-ever Social Summit, which concluded on Saturday (16th), expanding the participation of non-governmental actors in the G20 decision-making processes.
At the end of the summits, the group aims to sign a document with consensual commitments among all countries. However, the Social Summit already highlighted potential tensions in the final G20 communiqué, such as Argentina’s diplomatic opposition to proposals it had previously supported, including taxing the ultra-rich. Despite this, the Social Summit’s final declaration pressed for these issues to be defended by Heads of State. Other topics, such as the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, remain sources of disagreement, raising doubts about the content of the G20’s final document.
The sherpa meetings preceding the Leaders’ Summit, which began on Thursday (14th), were initially scheduled to conclude on Friday (15th). However, the lack of consensus extended the debates into Saturday, with the possibility of continuing into the early hours of Sunday (17th).
