External publications

The G20 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Scholz, Imme / Clara Brandi
External Publications (2020)

in: Whalley, John / Manmohan Agarwal (eds.), Economics of G20: how developing countries can achieve Sustainable Development Goals, Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 117–133

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/9789811214776_0005
Information

The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in 2015, is a very good starting point for efforts of the G20 to define collective action that addresses the challenges of globalisation. In 2016, the G20 made important progress at the Hangzhou Summit by adopting the “Action Plan on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. During the 2017 Hamburg Summit, the G20 re-emphasised their commitment to the 2030 Agenda in the official Summit communique and decided to take additional steps to promote the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. In the Buenos Aires Update, adopted in 2018, G20 leaders committed to highlighting collective G20 actions taken so far on implementing the Action Plan. The Osaka Update, adopted in 2019, highlights priorities and new collective actions put forward by the Japanese G20 Presidency, strengthens the multistakeholder dialogue on the 2030 Agenda and continues the peer learning mechanism on the implementation of the Action Plan. While these commitments represent steps into the right direction, more needs to be done by the G20 to deliver on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This chapter discusses the main elements of the 2030 Agenda and assesses its specific implementation challenges. It also investigates the role of the G20 and outlines the main steps the G20 has to undertake in order to use its potential for promoting implementation. The chapter concludes by enumerating policy recommendations for future G20 summits with a view to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.