The next G20 Summit, the 21st, will be held in Miami in December 2026. After that it is the UK’s turn to host the event, in Manchester. The G20 comprises 19 individual countries as well as two regional blocs - the European Union and the African Union.
It is a forum where world leaders discuss and seek to coordinate the big economic questions of the day. Perhaps its high point was the last time the UK hosted, in 2009. A global response to the Global Financial Crisis was agreed, involving an additional US$1.1 trillion for the IMF, trade finance and development banks.
It is an important grouping. As Martin Wolf has commented, “If the G20 did not exist, we would have to invent it”.[1] But it is certainly not a homogenous grouping. One way of looking at it is to split it between advanced and emerging economies (see diagram).
Furthermore, those two groups can be split further. The G20 advanced economies comprise the G7 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and US) plus two other countries - Australia and South Korea – and one regional bloc – the EU.
Similarly, the G20 emerging economies can be viewed as the seven BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa plus Indonesia and Saudi Arabia )[2] plus three other economies - Argentina, Mexico and Turkey – and one country grouping – the African Union. The latter became a member of the G20 only in September 2023: the name of the group has not (at least, yet) changed from the G20 to G21. But it could probably better be named the G100, reflecting the number of economies and blocs that are represented.[3]
Together, the G20 economies are expected to have a GDP of USD112tr in 2026, 89% of the global total; a population of 6.5 billion, 79% of the world total; and account for 83% of the world’s CO2 emissions.[4]
Fit for purpose?
But that broader representation has been associated with a questioning of its importance, notably by Gordon Brown.[5] He was UK prime minister when the UK had the G20 presidency in 2009. Now, however, Brown sees the G20 as much less important because of “the shift from a unipolar to a multipolar world, from a hyper-globalized economy to one that might be called ‘globalization lite’ and from neoliberalism toward neo-mercantilism.”
Exclusions
Other issues have also been raised about the importance of the G20. Despite its breadth, important economies are excluded. Three of only the four economies in the world judged ‘free’ by The Heritage Foundation[6] – Singapore, Switzerland and Taiwan – are not included.[7] Eight of the G20 economies have levels of corruption that are seen as high enough to compromise economic growth.[8] Hong Kong, Ukraine, Israel and all the Gulf economies (apart from Saudi Arabia) are not included. Most Latin American economies are not included (Argentina and Brazil are members). None of the 10 ASEAN economies are included.
G- Zero
Of course, widening membership further could be a recipe for an even greater ‘cacophany of competing voices’ as meetings of such international bodies of co-operation have been described by Ian Bremmer. He sees a G-Zero world in which no one country (or country group) is willing or able to assume global leadership.[9] That seems too pessimistic. “Jaw Jaw” as Winston Churchill said is better than “War War”. The world currently has both.
[2] Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Ethiopia are also BRICS members, making 11 in total.
[3] That is, the sum of: 7 economies of the G7; 2 advanced economies (Australia and South Korea) not in the G7; 27 economies of the EU ( minus the three in the G7, to avoid double counting); 2 EU representatives (the presidents of the EU Council and the Commission both attend meetings); 7 BRICS; 3 other emerging economies included in the G20 but not the BRICS; plus the African Union (comprising 55 countries) minus the one already in the G20 (South Africa) plus one African Union Commission representative. That makes 100 in total.
[4] Sources: Oxford Economics; IMF; Energy Insitute.
[5] Gordon Brown Fixing Global Governance. Project Syndicate 25 September 2023. https://tinyurl.com/y8wbr7nh
[7] Ireland, the fourth, is represented as an EU member state.
[8] Transparency International Corruptions Perception Index. Data as at 1 October 2023.
[9] https://www.gzeromedia.com/gzero-world-with-ian-bremmer/At its London summit, the G20 agreed a global response to the Global Financial Crisis, arguably its most significant achievement so far.