“India has delivered 205 outcomes and outcomes documents, the most by any G20 Presidency ever,” he said.
As India readies for the Virtual G20 Leaders’ Summit on November 22 before handing over the baton to Brazil, the country’s Sherpa for the grouping of world’s top economies, Amitabh Kant said the country will continue to work with the G20 Presidencies to ensure the majority of the 205 “outcomes” agreed upon in the New Delhi Leaders’ Summit are realised. India is pushing for early implementation of priorities including women-led development, climate finance, energy transitions, LiFE and digital public infrastructure, Kant told Prasanta Sahu. Edited excerpts.
Will India take up any new ideas to the Leaders?
India has delivered 205 outcomes and outcomes documents, the most by any G20 Presidency ever. India is set to convene an online gathering of G20 leaders on November 22, with the primary focus being the follow-up on significant outcomes taken during the group’s summit in September. This will predominantly centre on matters related to the development agenda, alongside discussions on various other global issues. We will then pass on the Presidency to Brazil and will continue to work with them to ensure we implement the majority of the 205 outcomes we have agreed on this year.
Have any decisions taken in the Leaders’ Summit been acted upon in this short span?
We have been one of the very few G20 Presidencies who have already geared up in less than a month after our G20 Summit to ensure that we turn our G20 ‘outcomes’ into ‘actions’. Continuing the momentum from the G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration, India’s apex policy think tank NITI Aayog in coordination with think tanks has spearheaded a series of high-level thematic workshops from 1st to 9th November 2023. These will forge the path to turn goals into action and strategies for impactful implementation. By providing a structured and collaborative environment, these workshops help bridge the gap between broad goals and practical implementation. These workshops will allow actionable plans and strategies to be developed, ultimately driving real change in line with the G20 New Delhi Leader’s Declaration. We are also working closely with the involved Line Ministries to further implement some of these low-hanging outcomes, such as the Green Hydrogen Innovation Centre. We hope to work with institutions and ministries to implement some of our DPI outcomes further. India Middle East Economic Corridor (IMEC) announced at the side-lines of our G20 Summit alongside the India-led Global Biofuel Alliance are also some of the key initiatives that we further hope to drive internationally.
What are the implementation priorities that India is aiming to achieve at the earliest?
The Indian Presidency brought consensus on the concept of Women-led Development (WLD), where women are seen not just as beneficiaries, but rather as leading the development process. The Action Plan on Sustainable Development through gender equality and empowerment of women, seeks to promote a women-centric and women-led development approach towards achieving the 2030 SDG Agenda, by ensuring their full, equal, effective, and meaningful participation, and leadership in all spheres of the economy.
The recent passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill that reserves 33% of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies is a testimony to India’s commitment to women-led development, for which it mobilised global support during its G20 Presidency this year.
The tripling of renewable energy capacity by 2030, globally is a landmark outcome of India’s Presidency. This will help in the rapid scaling up of RE capacity globally and domestically and accelerate clean energy transitions.
We also want to expedite our work in establishing the announced Green Hydrogen Innovation Centre and Global Biofuel Alliance, whereby a larger impact of these announcements can be unlocked to foster socio-economic development, whilst balancing out climate ambitions.
Through the announced G20 High-Level Principles on Lifestyle for Sustainable Development (LiFE), we would strive to support the implementation of the High-Level Principles (HLPs) through international cooperation, financial support, and development, deployment and dissemination of technology.
The announcements of USD 5.8-5.9 trillion and USD 4 trillion per year for National Determined Contributions (NDCs) implementation and clean energy technologies for developing countries was the critical outcome of our Presidency and we will continue to work with the Brazilian Presidency in mobilising these resources for the global south
What is the outcome India would cherish from the Summit?
Our Presidency has been inclusive, ambitious, decisive, action-oriented and unafraid to challenge the status quo. It was driven by PM Narendra Modi’s vision of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, that the entire world is one family and must work towards one future.
We have highlighted that the world needs to pivot towards a new global order, and under PM Modi we have given a strong call to action for the leaders of the world to come together and deliver on some of the most pressing challenges that the world faces, embedding the concerns of the Global South, including the African Union, at the core of our ambitions and actions.
India’s G20 Presidency has not just enabled the inclusion of the African Union as the permanent member of G20, but we have also played a pivotal role in substantially including the Voice of Global South across our priorities and across our key outcomes of the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration. We have done so through our outcomes across climate finance, inclusive and balanced growth, and digital public infrastructure, to name a few.
The inclusion of the African Union into the G20 as a permanent member has bolstered multilateralism and enriched the forum, further strengthening India’s position as a Leader in the Global South. Our Presidency’s ethos and theme of inclusive, ambitious, action-oriented, and decisive was our mantra for the success of this Presidency. We began our G20 journey with a vision to move towards our ambitions of Amrit Kaal and vision 2047, hand-in-hand with the world. Our priorities have been cross-cutting and were the most relevant for resolving the cascading crises the world faces today. India delivered on the G20’s goal to emerge as the problem solver for global interlinked crises of slowing growth, reversing SDG gains, and worsening climate change and geopolitical tensions, while emerging as a bright spot and leader of a resilient, sustainable and inclusive world.
Is anything expected on climate finance and MDB reforms?
India’s Green Development Pact for a Sustainable Future has strongly highlighted the need for reformed MDBs and international financial architecture, given that these institutions are not currently equipped to tackle climate change. We have for the first time highlighted that the climate finance requirements are in trillions of dollars.
The need for revitalized multilateralism to adequately address contemporary global challenges of the 21st Century, and to make global governance more representative, effective, transparent and accountable was highlighted strongly. We have also called on the MDBs to leverage private capital through innovative financing models and new partnerships to maximise their developmental and climate impact.
These reforms and changes take time in multilateral forums, and we will keep on pushing for these reforms in Brazil in 2024, South Africa in 2025, and the USA in 2026.
Source:financialexpress.com