Think20 India Communique Sets Agenda For G20 New Delhi Summit

Mysore(ABC Live): The 3 days T20 Summit, a think tank responsible for making policy briefs?for G20 India started today at?Radisson Blu, Mysore.

A?Think20 India?communiqué was issued today?wherein policy recommendations outlined sourced from the official Statements of the seven Task Forces of Think20 (T20) India.

The Indian Presidency has identified certain priorities for immediate G20 action: green development, climate finance, women-led development, Lifestyles for Environment (LiFE), data for development, digital transformations, and reform of multilateral institutions.

This document is a call to action and outlines a set of policy proposals for G20 decision-makers.

MACROECONOMIC AND TRADE POLICY COORDINATION

The G20 Finance Track must take up the task of information monitoring on global risks to macroeconomic stability to create early warning systems. The Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG) should set up a G20 Platform on Digital Trade to ensure World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements are modernised to serve the needs of the digital world. The Trade and Investment Working Group (TIWG) should work closely with the DEWG and the Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group to ensure formulation of practical policies and interventions on new trade issues like digital and green trade, amongst others.

AFFORDABLE, ACCESSIBLE AND INCLUSIVE DIGITAL PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE

G20 members should leverage public-private partnership models to strengthen joint and in-country initiatives for building Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) ecosystems that are scalable, open-access, and innovation-friendly. A G20 Working Group on DPI should be set up under the Sherpa Track for members to jointly create and share models for DPI. Digital skilling and entrepreneurship must be accorded high priority and targeted programmes put in place to skill, upskill and reskill people.

LIFE, RESILIENCE AND VALUES FOR WELL-BEING

The G20 must address financial flows for physical, social, digital and energy infrastructure from the perspective of sustainability, resilience, circularity, inclusivity, rural-urban balance, and trans-species balance. Emphasis must be placed on ethical considerations for infrastructure financing and technology-led solutions. The G20 must set up a joint programme of the Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group and Health Working Group to improve health outcomes of humans, animals, and ecosystems. The G20 must establish an ecosystem at the global, national, and local levels to de-risk sustainable low-carbon infrastructure and promote, govern, and finance disaster-resilient infrastructure projects that align with the LiFE approach based on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) norms, especially in the Global South.

MAINSTREAMING WOMEN LED DEVELOPMENT

Gender inequality remains a significant impediment to achieving sustainable and equitable growth. To foster increased female workforce participation and support economic empowerment, the G20 must help countries implement a comprehensive set of policies centred around improved gender budgeting, enhancing women's employability in emerging and growing sectors, and promoting gender-transformative employment policies, with a particular focus on women in the informal economy. The G20 should work with MDBs, DFIs, and International Financing Institutions (IFIs) to promote a specialised fund to finance women-owned micro/small enterprises across all G20 countries, facilitated by regional and/or through triangular development cooperation. The G20 should focus on developing a well-thought-out, well-governed, and inclusive care system that is affordable for the poorest segments of society. This system should be supported by both public and private financing and focus on creating decent work opportunities within the care sector and enabling greater economic participation of women with family responsibilities.

CLEAN ENERGY AND GREEN TRANSITIONS

G20 Energy Ministers should work towards moving beyond the technology transfer paradigm and collaborate to create models of technology co-development, wherein stakeholders across countries jointly develop and own technologies that can accelerate the energy transition. Integrate linkages between energy transitions and the Sustainable Development Goals by strengthening cooperation between the Energy Transition Working Group (ETWG), the Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group, and the Development Working Group (DWG) to identify solutions to address trade-offs and synergise interconnections between SDGs and climate action. The G20 must work towards encouraging existing and newer formats of cooperation to further efforts towards reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The ETWG and the TIWG must work together to encourage countries to practice nondiscriminatory trade policies.

CATALYSING CLIMATE FINANCE

Developing and emerging economies, except China, will require US$2.4 trillion a year by 2030 (6.4 percent of global GDP) to achieve their climate action targets. This will require reorienting public investment towards climate action, mobilising greater private finance, reforming Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), and expanding the scope of concessional finance. The G20 should establish mechanisms for tracking global financial flows across countries to ensure accountability of developed nations in meeting their climate finance commitments. Reducing the cost of capital for green projects in emerging and developing economies needs to be prioritised in the global climate discourse. The G20 should establish targeted initiatives, such as a Green Development and Investment Accelerator, to streamline the pipeline of green projects and enhance derisking efforts in developing economies, thereby facilitating their scaling up.

REASSESSING THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL ORDER

The G20 must restructure the international financial architecture to boost funds for developing countries so as to materially increase the quantum of finance and reduce the cost of capital for climate action and SDGs. The G20 must encourage private participation in credit databases and court-based injunctions to prevent asset seizures under restructuring efforts. It must aim to provide preferred creditor status to all MDBs. G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBGs) could emphasise the need to increase MDBs’ capacity to attract private capital by systematically deploying risk-mitigation tools and providing credit information to the market.

To Read Complete?THINK20 INDIA COMMUNIQUé Click here? #g20india #g20 #t20 #think20india #abclive

Source: The ABC Live