India's Leadership at the G20 - All Nations to Benefit from India's Stewardship

In this stimulating article, Aarti Khosla highlights that the G20 mantle allows India the opportunity to influence the energy track discussions, while emphasizing the need for energy security and demonstrating rapid investment in clean energy goals.

- Aarti Khosla

India’s leadership of the G20 or Group of Twenty in 2023 pulls into focus its singularly unique position: that of a host of a group of economies that together accounts for 81 per cent of the world’s GDP, but also that of a primarily market-driven test-bed, and promoter of solutions that are critical to mitigating against climate change. It is a prominent member of the Global South and is proactive on expanding clean energy, but is also pragmatic on the balance needed for a Just Transition away from fossil fuels. India understands and is living the principle that even though the climate crisis necessitates a rapid retreat from coal, oil and natural gas, the transition to clean alternatives need not foment economic uncertainty.

Energy Self-sufficiency

The G20 mantle allows India the opportunity to influence the energy track discussions, while emphasizing the need for energy security and demonstrating rapid investment in clean energy goals. As the European Union and the UK are forced to tackle rising energy costs and buy expensive gas supplies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the rest of the developing countries have also been scrambling for expensive gas, leaving countries like Bangladesh with high gas prices, high inflation and domestic turmoil. The shock to the global energy system last year has shown that large-scale energy imports and carbon-intensive systems are not conducive to nimble, future-ready economies. Even if India remains wary of any commitment to shun its coal dependency, the G20 will certainly provide an opportunity to emphasize the diversification of energy systems, as well as lowering emissions from all energy sources—coal, oil and gas—a viewpoint that the country also put forth at the UNFCCC negotiations in Egypt in late 2022.