The 2014 G20 summit: What did it achieve?

Brisbane – Walking around Brisbane today after the G20 Leaders’ Summit, there is little physical evidence that the meeting ever took place.  The security barriers have gone, the banners taken down, and everyone is back at work after enjoying an extra public holiday.  But what about the decisions taken by the G20 leaders last weekend?  Will their impacts be just as transitory?

In the run up to the meeting, everyone from the OECD to the IMF to the Pope was calling for action on inequality.  The Australian hosts were incredibly reluctant to do this, or to even use the word ‘inequality’. The fact that the Summit communiqué issued at the end of the leaders’ deliberations mentioned inequality not once, but twice, represents a significant shift. It means that the G20 now has a mandate to deliver wealth to many and not just to an elite few - and that we can hold them accountable for this. 

G20 Global Growth Plan To Boost GDP By $2 Trillion

BRISBANE, Australia - Leaders of the G20 nations finalized a plan Sunday to boost global GDP by more than $2 trillion over five years by investing in infrastructure and increasing trade.

The communique issued at the conclusion of their summit in Brisbane, Australia says the leaders plan to jumpstart growth, in part, by creating a global infrastructure hub.