The G20 to be held in Johannesburg this year is significant as the first G20 Summit on the African continent. Notably, SA has hosted two other historic summits with substantial implications for climate and sustainability action.
The COP17 was hosted in Durban in 2011, and Johannesburg hosted the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. The COP17 was particularly instrumental in advancing political negotiations on developing new climate instruments and affirming the continued relevance of the Kyoto Protocol in shaping climate sustainability action before the Paris Agreement.
This year’s G20 Summit must, in the same spirit, be utilised by SA to promote sustainable climate action, both internationally and domestically.
The G20 Summit represents opportunities for SA to re-establish itself as a main international role-player on sustainable climate action, and to urgently address the country’s own detrimental reputation as the highest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the African region and 12th worldwide.
The summit arrives at a critical juncture for climate and sustainability action on the international stage. It will be four months after the historic International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgment on the climate change obligations of states, which is already shaping climate and sustainability action internationally and domestically.
As the host country, SA will have a greater responsibility and heightened scrutiny in consolidating many of the ICJ judgment’s principles at the summit, particularly against the country’s backdrop of severe inequality, unemployment, and vulnerability to climate change.
Significantly, this year’s G20 will be two days after COP30 in Brazil. SA’s role at the G20 will therefore be critical in affirming the multilateral consensus of COP30 on the most pressing international priorities and obligations in relation to climate change. SA will also have to warrant states respect established climate targets, such nationally determined contributions (NDCs), in G20 negotiations, and ensure that these targets are interlinked with economic policy and human rights protection and fulfilment.
Central to the 2025 summit will be the differentiated but common responsibilities according to the capacities of G20 countries. For instance, SA can mediate delicate political situations that have acute implications for experiences of climate change in Africa and the Global South.
SA’s presidency can be a main driver for greater Global North and “developed” countries’ responsibility in building climate responsive capacities of states disproportionately affected by climate change. SA can thereby represent interests such as those of small island states and coastal states threatened by rising sea levels, particularly for those in the African region that are too often invisible at these global summits.
There is a pertinent economic-centric focus of the G20 this year on issues such as African and Global South development, inclusive economic growth, and debt reform. Yet, this economic-centric focus is tempered by the theme of the summit on solidarity, equality, and sustainability.
The implications of this theme are that development must be people-focused, specifically addressing systematic and embedded forms of discrimination and inequality, that the needs of future generations must be considered, and that climate protection is concomitant to the pursuit of economic growth.
The transformative potential of the theme should not be underestimated for climate action. Many previous climate developments were in nascent stages at previous summits. SA’s hosting and presidency of the G20 can contribute to negotiations that result in shifting traditional economic aims to be fundamentally integral to sustainable climate change responses.
This will however be dependent on the political will of SA in balancing the climate change agenda at the G20 with economic discussions and other contemporary topics, such as AI.
This G20 also presents a moment of introspection for SA’s government and environmental authorities, which could further promote climate sustainability action domestically. Pressure to conduct the meeting with a country’s own reputation at stake has, in the past, spurred other host countries into taking sustained climate actions.
SA’s progress in a just transition is concerning and underwhelming. This is due to the continued reliance on a coal-based economy despite alternative pathways, and not adhering to emission and energy targets such as those of the Integrated Resources Plan.
The draft 2025 NDC of SA, available for comment, also does not represent the ambitious targets of a government committed to a just transition.
For SA to advance climate and sustainability action, it will require that all arms, spheres, and levels of government lead an integrated and interdependent response to climate change.
It will especially require SA to host a truly collaborative and pluralistic G20 summit. The summit will be conducted amid a complex network of global economic and political interests, but SA must prioritise climate change as the greatest global challenge and threat, both internationally and domestically.
- Dr Van Schalkwyk is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Cape Town’s African Synthesis centre for environment, climate change and development
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