Charles Michel, President of the European Council, and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, represented the EU. President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin addressed the summit via videoconference.

At the end of the meeting, the G20 leaders adopted a G20 leaders' declaration.

Main results

In particular, the G20 leaders agreed to:

• keep the goal of 1.5 degree global warming compared to pre-industrial levels within reach
• accelerate their actions towards achieving global net zero greenhouse gas emissions or carbon neutrality by or around mid-century
• reaffirm developed countries' climate finance commitment to mobilise jointly $100 billion per year, and welcome new commitments by some G20 members 
• implement the new rules for a more stable and fairer international tax system, including a 15% global minimum corporate tax, by 2023
• advance efforts to ensure better and more timely access to COVID-19 vaccines in low- and middle-income countries
• establish a G20 Joint Finance-Health Task Force to ensure adequate financing of pandemic prevention, preparedness and response

Below are several highlights of the G20 discussions.

Economic recovery

The leaders noted that the global economy has recovered at a solid pace in 2021, thanks the roll-out of vaccines and continued policy support. However, recovery has been highly divergent across and within countries.

This is why the G20 remain determined to use all available tools for as long as required to address the adverse consequences of the pandemic, in particular on those most impacted, such as women, youth, and informal and low-skilled workers, and on inequalities.

“We will continue to sustain the recovery, avoiding any premature withdrawal of support measures, while preserving financial stability and long-term fiscal sustainability and safeguarding against downside risks and negative spill-overs”, says the G20 leaders' declaration.

The G20 will also remain vigilant to global economic challenges such as the disruption of supply chains.

COVID-19 and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response

To address enduring vaccination gaps, the G20 leaders committed to substantially increasing the provision of and access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, with particular regard to the needs of low- and middle-income countries.

This should enable progress towards the goal of vaccinating at least 40% of the population in all countries by the end of 2021 and 70% by mid-2022, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

To provide adequate, sustainable and better coordinated financing of pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, the G20 leaders established a G20 Joint Finance-Health Task Force, as proposed by G20 health and finance ministers on the eve of the summit.

The task force will work out by early 2022 modalities to establish a financial facility, to be coordinated by the WHO, to enhance global financing for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.

Climate and energy

The G20 leaders pledged to work collectively to achieve a successful UN climate conference (COP26), which started in Glasgow, UK, back-to-back with the G20 summit.

They reaffirmed their commitment to the full and effective implementation of the United Nations climate convention (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement.

The G20 leaders noted that keeping the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels within reach will require meaningful and effective actions and commitment by all countries, taking into account different approaches.

The G20 will accelerate their actions across mitigation, adaptation and finance, acknowledging the key relevance of achieving global net zero greenhouse gas emissions or carbon neutrality by or around mid-century.

To support further progress on fulfilling the Paris Agreement, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) with support from the European Union launched at the G20 summit a new Observatory to drive global action on reducing methane emissions, the International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO). It will bring global reporting on methane emissions to an entirely different level, ensuring public transparency on anthropogenic methane emissions. IMEO will initially focus on methane emissions from the fossil fuel sector, and then expand to other major emitting sectors like agriculture and waste.

Finally, the leaders recalled and reaffirmed the climate finance commitment made by developed countries to mobilise jointly $100 billion per year by 2020 and through 2025 to support developing countries in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating and adapting to the adverse impacts of climate change.

Background

The G20 members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.

Spain is a permanent guest. The Italian G20 presidency invited seven additional leaders as guests to the summit, including the prime minister of the Netherlands.

More information

G20 summit, Rome, Italy, 30-31 October 2021

G20 website

International Methane Emissions Observatory launched to boost action on powerful climate-warming gas (press release by the European Commission, 31/10/2021)