The whole world is going through unstable times. The G20 Summit is being held at a time when our world is going through challenges ranging from poverty and hunger to climate change, dealing with the post-Covid-19 pandemic crisis, war-insurgency, and economic sanctions and counter-sanctions.
Despite many problems, such international conferences are actually a kind of Aladdin's lamp. Especially for small and middle-income countries, it is a symbol of hope. These countries look forward to these conferences all year round. Because these conferences are their place of trust, a symbol of trust, and a corridor of economic aid. Do these conferences really help underdeveloped and developing countries?
The reality is that people and land exist on this planet through mutual equilibrium. Therefore, we survive in this ecological circle forever. This world is not just for the rich, but for everyone. If people survive on earth, this world will survive. One of the major components of this planet is climate. This is no longer a day to belittle. The extent to which humans are polluting the environment, if we cannot prevent it now, then difficult days await us.
The G20 summit, an alliance of the world's richest countries, was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on November 18-19, 2024. This year's conference ended with a lot of hesitation and disagreement. Instead of prioritizing the climate issue in their discussions, world leaders focused more on the Ukraine war and Donald Trump's return to the White House.
Naturally, questions arise about the purpose and goals of these conferences. Since the backward countries are looking forward to this conference, have they really gained anything from this conference? Although Donald Trump announced after winning this election that he would reduce his contributions to the UN Climate Fund. This has already caused concern among the backward countries. Could the leaders of the G20, an alliance of industrialized and developing economies, break the deadlock in the UN talks on the climate issue? The question remains.
Although climate change is a slow process, its effects are very serious and far-reaching. Problems such as extreme weather, global warming, flash floods, river erosion, droughts, wildfires, deforestation, melting of polar ice caps and rising sea levels, or large areas turning into deserts due to drought are being caused by climate change.
According to data, industrialized countries emit 80 percent of the gases responsible for increasing global temperatures. These countries play a direct role in environmental pollution. 85 percent of the world's economy and 75 percent of world trade depend on these G20 countries.
Therefore, the fate of the entire world depends on the decisions of these countries. At this summit, the G20 leaders are divided over who will provide financial assistance to the countries affected by climate change. Later, they did not make any promises in this regard. They only said that this assistance of hundreds of millions of dollars must come from 'all sources'. In fact, the conflicting positions of the leaders of the rich countries undermine these noble goals. Any agreement on the climate issue will likely make these divisions even more difficult.
History of the G20 Summit The G20 began in Berlin, Germany, in 1999 with a conference of central bank governors and finance ministers from the European Union and the world's 19 richest countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.
In 2008, then-US President George W. Bush called for the heads of state or government to join the summit to discuss the global economic crisis. The summit, held in Washington, DC that year, was essentially the first G20 summit. Since then, this summit has been held every year.
The topics of the G20 summit include climate change, development policy, labor market and employee policy, the spread of digital technology, countering terrorism, women's economic empowerment, health, migration, refugees, preventing and combating corruption, etc. Previous G20 Summits and Bangladesh The G20 Summit was held in New Delhi, the capital of India, in 2023. Bangladesh was invited as a 'best friend' with high priority. It was indeed a matter of great honor and pride for Bangladesh to be designated as the only 'guest country' from South Asia in 2023, despite not being a member of the G20 group.
Indonesia held the presidency in 2022 and the G20 leaders' summit was held in Bali. Every year, a country belonging to the G20 takes the presidency and decides the topic of discussion of the summit.
G20 Donations and Bangladesh's Position Bangladesh has already prepared an economic, commercial and social action plan around this year's G20 summit. Although the G20 is a multilateral alliance. Here, the discussions are held multilaterally. Since Western countries and China have an interest in Bangladesh. Therefore, we need to adopt the right policy plan to get the maximum benefits from the world.
The interest that the outside world has created around Bangladesh is called momentum, and to maintain it, we need to adopt the right diplomatic strategy along with long-term planning.
If Bangladesh is assured of its rightful status in the list of developing countries from the G20 summit, it will be able to take various other steps in addition to the existing programs to address the challenges of climate change. Notable among these are - building dams to control floods, developing drought and salinity tolerant crop varieties, restoring navigability in rivers, increasing the amount of forest land, expanding forest land in coastal areas, taking effective steps to improve the quality of life of people in coastal areas and rehabilitating affected people, reducing carbon emissions and increasing the use of renewable energy, etc.
It is hoped that this will keep Bangladesh ahead in addressing the challenges of climate change. However, since the climate change crisis is global, the government of each country will have to come forward with sincerity. World leaders will not only have to attend the summit every year and sign the agreement, they will also have to implement it. Only then will this summit be fruitful and the life of every living being on this planet will be purified.
COP29 Summit The impact of climate change has become the biggest challenging issue in the coming world. This is not a problem of a single country or a particular region, but has become visible as a global problem. Therefore, the Conference of Parties (COP) has been held every year since 1995 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to address the challenges of climate change.
The 29th conference in 2024 was held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, a country on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the chief advisor to the interim government, participated as a representative of Bangladesh in this global conference. The main goal of this conference is to establish a consensus on raising billions of dollars in climate finance.
In practice, it is to decide where and how this money will be spent. How much money should developing countries provide from industrialized countries, multinational banks and the private sector, which is brought forward by the COP29 conference.
The COP conference depends more or less completely on the green signal of the G20 conference. The fate of the lagging countries depends on the will of the rich countries. Almost all the agendas of the COP conference are passed in advance at the G20 conference. However, Bangladesh participated in this year's COP29 meeting facing a different reality.
A new interim government was formed in the country through the mass uprising of students and the public in July-August. Soon after the formation of the government, Feni, Comilla and Lakshmipur districts in the eastern part of the country were hit by a terrible flash flood. These incidents help us understand the importance of these meetings.
Recommendations Some recommendations are made to make the G20 meeting more effective and dynamic—
1. Increase grants for developing countries and advance the reform of multilateral development banks.
2. Launch a damage fund as soon as possible to provide additional financing to combat climate-related migration.
3. Make the functioning of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) more dynamic and visible.
4. Continue humanitarian assistance by the global community, without forgetting the issue of ensuring the repatriation of displaced citizens to their own countries.
5. Fight poverty and do not impose the responsibility of protecting and preserving the planet on any single country.
6. G20 countries should follow different transformational paths in the face of different needs and thereby meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
7. Support fragile economies and ensure greater financial resources to lift their people out of poverty.
8. Reduce financial inequality, starting from achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
9. Take stronger and longer-term action on climate change.
Finally, I would like to say that we need a global system that can solve poverty alleviation, mitigate the harmful effects of climate change, prevent conflict and finance technology transfer for building a knowledge-based society.
In recent conferences, the scope of discussions of the G20 countries in the global polarization has increased. In addition to the economy, issues such as climate change, sustainable energy, international debt relief and taxation of multinational companies are also getting priority in their agenda. Which is a sure message of hope for countries like Bangladesh.
Prashant Kumar Shil, Teacher and international political analyst
