G20 performance on environment

South Africa’s 2025 G20 presidency, with its themes of ‘Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability’, places the environment at the centre of the forum’s governance. With the African Union now a permanent member, the G20’s expanded constituency and scale strengthen the mandate to convert political intent into measurable outcomes. The Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group, chaired by South Africa’s environment minister Dion George, has convened throughout the year to align the deliverables of the sherpa and finance tracks. The stakes are high: global environmental pressures persist even as the G20’s attention, decisions and delivery have risen. The question for 2025 is whether this presidency can turn established momentum into specific, near-term actions that produce visible gains.

Deliberations

Leaders have moved the environment from the margins to a stable place in terms of the number of words they devote to the issue in their declarations. Period averages step up from 4% in 2008–2016 to 14% in 2017–2020 and 15% in 2021–2024. Early attention was limited and uneven, with no more than 4% between 2008 and 2015 before an inflection in 2016 to 15%. The higher baseline then held, despite a few dips: 10% in 2017, 2% in 2018, 21% in 2019, 21% in 2020, 19% in 2021, 8% in 2022, 12% in 2023 and 21% in 2024. This record confirms durable agenda space entering 2025.

Decisions

The environment’s share of leaders’ commitments has likewise risen from negligible to durable levels. Period averages increase from 1% (2008–2016) to 6% (2017–2020) and 10% (2021–2024), including 10% at Rio de Janeiro in 2024. The early phase contained sparse agreements (generally less than 1%). A structural shift arrived in 2017 to 11%; although it fell in 2018 to 0%, output resumed in 2019 with 5% and 2020 with 6%, and then stabilised near one-tenth of all commitments in 2021 (9%), 2022 (11%), 2023 (8%) and 2024 (10%). This regularity provides predictable entry points for implementation planning and peer review.

delivery

Delivery on those commitments has strengthened sharply, according to the G20 Research Group’s assessments of G20 members’ compliance. Period averages rise from 49% (2008–2016) to 62% (2017–2020) and 84% (2021–2024), above the 71% all-subject average in the latest period. By May 2025, compliance with the one assessed commitment made at Rio in 2024 had 81%, consistent with the post-2020 step-change. Summit snapshots follow the same trajectory: 52% for Osaka 2019, 73% for Riyadh 2020, 88% for Rome 2021 and 82% for Bali 2022. 

By country, the United Kingdom and Australia lead with 91%, followed by the European Union, Canada and Germany at 87%. A broad middle spans 51% to 79%, with Brazil and Türkiye sitting near 47% and Indonesia near 39%. The pattern shows higher period averages, strong recent summits and a persistent top cohort, and supports expectations of solid delivery in 2025 if new commitments remain specific and time bound.

Causes

A gap remains, however, between rising inputs and real-world outcomes. Since 2021, attention has averaged 15%, decisions have held near 10% and delivery has averaged 84% (with 81% for 2024), yet broad or procedural pledges can register as compliant without producing clear effects. Two corrections are supported by the record. First, G20 leaders should keep ministerial follow-through central to execution: when environment ministers began meeting in 2019, average compliance rose from 53% (Osaka 2019) to 73% (Riyadh 2020) and 88% (Rome 2021), and remained high at 82% (Bali 2022); South Africa’s 2025 calendar, with three working group meetings and an October ministerial meeting, can sustain that discipline by returning to implementation issues at set intervals and resolving obstacles during the year. 

Second, G20 leaders can use peer experience to narrow the wide performance gap: top performers such as the United Kingdom and Australia average about 91% compliance, while Indonesia averages 38% and the overall mean sits near 59%; practical exchanges in which consistently high performers (including the EU, Canada and Germany) share working approaches with mid-table and low-performing members offer a straightforward way to lift delivery without changing the current decision share.

Conclusion

South Africa inherits stable attention (15%), a reliable decision share (10%) and high delivery (84% up to 2023). By applying ministerial follow-through and facilitating peer learning across the performance spread, its G20 presidency can increase the likelihood that regular commitments translate into visible environmental gains in 2025.