Valdai Club

Amid the growing political rift within the G20, Brazil’s G20 presidency in 2024 provides a significant example of a constructive approach to resolving existing contradictions. The government of Brazil, a typical country of the World Majority and the Global South, seeks to preserve all its opportunities to influence the international environment, but to do so, the first task is to load the agenda that the West could use for its narrow political purposes. It should be noted that the Brazilian authorities have certain achievements here.

During its presidency of the G20, Brazil focused on expanding the range of issues, taking the discussion beyond the political framework, and initiated several new formats of interaction within the G20. Brazil’s G20 presidency under Lula da Silva focused on sustainable development, reducing social inequality, and strengthening multilateralism through the active involvement of developing countries in international processes. In other words, its task was to give meaning to a format that, under the pressure of conflicts between Russia and the West, as well as the United States and China, could gradually lose its relevance. 
Let us try to consider, in this regard, Brazil’s five key initiatives in the context of its G20 presidency.

First, Brazil emphasised the need to reform global governance institutions, including the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions — the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Reform of the UN Security Council, where the five permanent members (P5) have veto power, occupies a central place in the international debate. Despite the recognition of the concept of reform in the global community, not a single concrete proposal has been implemented so far. One of the significant proposals Brazil made was that permanent members of the Security Council should not use their veto power in matters that concern their own interests. A similar approach has developed in Western judicial practice, where judges can be removed from considering a case if a conflict of interest is revealed.

However, this initiative did not find support from the G20 member states, so Brazil, as the country holding the presidency, faced the task of finding a compromise on the issue of reforming global governance institutions. 

Such a compromise was found: following the meeting of the G20 on September 25, a document was adopted on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly titled “Call to Action on Global Governance Reform”. In particular, this document enshrined provisions on the revision of quotas for loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and also laid the foundation for further discussions on the status of the external debt of developing countries and mechanisms for collecting taxes on the excess incomes of legal entities. Also, in the context of reforming the international financial architecture, Brazil, as the current president of the G20, has proposed stepping up the efforts of the multilateral development banks (MDBs), revising the International Monetary Fund (IMF) quota formula in favour of low- and middle-income countries, and deepening the dialogue on tax equity, including for high incomes.

Second, an important area of ​​Brazil’s work this year has been the creation of the Global Alliance to Fight Hunger and Poverty, which is intended to serve as a tool for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. This initiative is based on Brazil’s status as the world’s second-largest food exporter, which creates a unique opportunity for the country to effectively participate in the global fight against critical social issues. It should be noted that the Alliance will not focus on creating new funds or programmes. Instead, Brazil intends to focus on coordinating existing food initiatives and programmes to make them more effective and useful for recipient countries.

In addition, the Alliance will aim to collect and systematise the best approaches in the field of combating these social problems. This will facilitate the exchange of experience and knowledge, which, in turn, will help other countries to develop and implement their own programmes aimed at improving the living conditions of the population. In this context, Brazil's experience will be particularly useful in implementing the Bolsa Familia social programme, which over the years has contributed to a significant reduction in poverty in the country by providing financial assistance to low-income families.  This Brazilian programme has been adapted and successfully implemented in almost twenty other countries, which emphasises its universality and practical significance.

Third, as part of its active environmental policy, Brazil is establishing a Taskforce for the Global Mobilisation against Climate Change. The main objective of this initiative will be to encourage G20 countries to create more favourable political conditions for allowing agreements on financing climate initiatives to be reached at the Conference of the Parties (COP-29), which is being held this month in Azerbaijan. In addition, Brazil, as G20 president, aims to encourage countries to develop initiatives to achieve net zero emissions at the Conference of the Parties (COP30), which will be held in 2025 under Brazil’s presidency. Brazil will actively promote its environmental initiatives and encourage other countries to rethink their approaches to environmental protection. In particular, at the summit, Brazil will present its Global Bioeconomy Initiative, which integrates science and technology to effectively use biodiversity. The initiative includes increasing developing countries’ access to climate funds, such as the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility, which will help distribute resources equally and support vulnerable countries in achieving global climate goals.

Fourth, based on the introduction of a global minimum tax that came into force earlier this year, Brazil plans to present an ambitious initiative aimed at introducing a minimum tax for the wealthiest individuals – an idea that has been supported by France, with which Brazil had a sharp conflict under the previous government. This initiative proposes the introduction of progressive taxation targeted at the richest citizens, which in turn can contribute to a fairer redistribution of wealth and provide additional resources to combat social inequality and poverty. Brazil sees this initiative as a strategic step to attract the attention and support of the countries of the Global South, as well as other states interested in establishing more equal tax regulation in the international arena. The support of such countries is important for the implementation of this proposal, as it can significantly change the approach to taxation and financial policy at both the regional and global levels.

Fifth, in September 2023, Brazil signed a memorandum of understanding with the United States of America on a partnership in the field of protecting workers' rights, with a special focus on the gig economy. As part of this agreement, both countries committed to adopt the necessary changes in their national legislation in order to achieve the established goal of protecting workers' rights in the context of rapidly evolving forms of employment. Brazil and the United States hope that this memorandum will serve as a shining example for other countries, encouraging them to take action in this area as well, which could contribute to the harmonisation of labour rights standards at the global level. 

Thus, in the context of the growing threat of politicisation of the G20, Brazil, acting as the chairman, has demonstrated a constructive and balanced approach to organise the work of the forum. Brazil's strategy is focused on strengthening multipolarity, improving international cooperation and improving social and financial sustainability among the member countries. But at the same time, it seeks to involve Western countries, limiting their ability to destructively influence the global agenda. The G20 summit in November 2024 is slated to discuss such key topics as sustainable development, combating climate change, food security and revising global taxation mechanisms, including taxes on excessive profits. At the same time, special attention will be paid to financial support for developing countries to ensure inclusive growth and equality.