UK’s G20 presidency will put Andy Burnham at the centre of global politics

The UK will take over the G20 presidency next year, placing Andy Burnham in charge of a major international responsibility. The group comprises 19 countries, the European Union and the African Union; Burnham has also said he wants to focus on domestic policy.

The UK last chaired the forum in 2009, when members agreed a $5tn fiscal stimulus, increased lending through the IMF and created the Financial Stability Board.

Four proposed priorities

The author argues that the UK should seek an international agreement and process for regulating artificial intelligence. Other priorities would be coordinated action on food security amid weather disruption, the climate crisis, soil and biodiversity loss, and higher fuel and fertiliser costs linked to the war in the Middle East.

He also proposes stronger support for countries adapting to climate change, especially the most vulnerable, and a debt restructuring programme for low- and middle-income economies whose debt has become unsustainable as global interest rates have risen.

G20’s limited institutional power

The G20 has no headquarters, permanent staff or standing official website. The author says its communiques generally reflect agreement on broad principles rather than new commitments by member states.

He identifies the suspension of developing countries’ debt payments during the Covid pandemic in 2020, followed by a common framework for debt treatment, as one of the forum’s relatively rare collective decisions.

A test for the British government

The proposed priorities are linked by their need for international cooperation and by their relevance to technological, food, climate and economic security. The author argues that the first three could also demonstrate to the British public how international action produces domestic benefits.

Michael Jacobs is a professor of political economy at the University of Sheffield and a former energy and climate change adviser to Gordon Brown.