by Francesco Giappichini –
The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, already has clear ideas about how the 19th summit of the Group of Twenty (G20), the 2024 G20 Rio de Janeiro summit, should take place. The appointment will inaugurate an important two-year period for the South American nation, which will seek to reaffirm its centrality in international relations, its role as a regional power, and its soft power. Not only is the organization of the 17th Brics summit (2025 Brics Summit) expected in ’25; a few months later, at Belém in the State of Para, the 2025 United Nations climate change conference, or Conference of the parties – COP 30 will also be inaugurated.
The head of state not only stated the objectives of the Cúpula do G20 Rio de Janeiro 2024, scheduled for 18 and 19 November 2024, and whose lemma is already a catchphrase in the media: «Construindo um mundo justo e um planeta sustentável », in Italian “Building a fair world and a sustainable planet”. He also announced the creation of two task forces, and a significant allocation of almost 57 million euros. Naturally, with this activism on the foreign policy level, we will try to divert attention from internal difficulties: Lula is in fact a “lame duck”, and his Administration is unable to rest on a solid majority. In short – especially when dealing with formations that are nothing more than patronage-type electoral cartels – many centrist deputies prefer to wink at the endless “anti-Lulist” electorate, rather than follow party discipline.
But let’s go in order. Lula, who will assume the presidency of the Group of Twenty (G20) on December 1st, has decided: the Rio de Janeiro Summit, the first in Brazil, will have to pursue three fundamental objectives, through two working groups. The first forum will address food insecurity around the world, while another will study how to address climate change. Well, the first objective, called “Social inclusion and fight against hunger”, will have to be pursued through an unspecified global alliance against hunger and poverty. The second, called “Energy transition and sustainable development in its social, economic and environmental aspects”, contains a political message: it rejects the idea that the environmental agenda is separated from the need to generate income and reduce inequalities.
The third consists in the reform of global governance institutions: the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the United Nations Security Council. In the background, the need to expand access to resources, for the benefit of developing countries: according to Brasilia, these institutions have obsolete formats, which do not give the right space to the global South. Beyond the institutional objectives, the worker-president aims for a streamlined summit (at least compared to the one in New Delhi), but with dozens of sectoral meetings to be spread across the five traditional regions of the country. A widespread summit, therefore, and above all in the name of debate, so that society manifests itself and participates: it will have to be a “popular”, “participatory” and “democratic” G20, to use the president’s adjectives. Finally, the chapter of the conflict in Ukraine. In essence, the Lula Government demands a G20 that is not divided on geo-political issues and military conflicts, but is limited to social, economic and environmental issues.
