Navigating Challenges for Sustainable Growth

A Green and Sustainable Growth Agenda for the Global EconomyThe genesis of the G20 was at the end of the last century.Its salience grew even more during the global economic crisis in the first decade of the twenty-first century.Although India itself has had the scale and autonomy to bounce back relatively quickly from COVID, this is not true of most countries of the Global South where the development momentum has appreciably deteriorated because of the pandemic, further complicated by the aftershocks of war, sanctions, and inflation.The challenges of adaptation to a changing climate add to economic and social stress.There is a deep crisis of economic development, well-documented in the stagnation of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN and in commentary by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, but for reasons of a changed geopolitics, this deep crisis has not evoked the solidarity of the past.The G20 Leaders' most basic commitment is to deliver strong, sustainable, balanced, and inclusive growth, to be achieved through political guidance arrived at through dialogue and policy coordination.Each G20 Presidency builds upon the achievements of its predecessor and hands over to its successor through a wellestablished troika process.With Indonesia leading India, Brazil scheduled to follow in 2024 and South Africa in 2025, four developing countries in succession will hold the G20 Presidency.This sequence provides a golden opportunity to bring sustained long-term economic growth (and not just economic recovery) back to center stage on the global economic agenda.On 28-29 July 2023, NITI Aayog, together with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa and the Global Development Network (GDN), New Delhi, convened an international policy conference of around 40 leading thinkers to examine prospects and challenges pertaining to green and sustainable growth for the global economy.The policy conference was an official G20 side event designed to explore the contours of a new growth model to guide this and future G20 Presidencies.The first day of the conference focused on themes related to energy, climate, v vi Foreword and growth; technology, policy, and jobs; the growth implications of a fractured trading system and reshaping global finance for sustainable growth.The second day addressed themes related to multilateralism as well as adjustment, resilience, and inclusion in an uncertain world.The discussions yielded rich insights in a number of areas.For instance, opinions are sharply divided on the growth consequences of a transition from fossil to renewable resources at a time when climate change will impose its own challenges of adaptation.The International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization have warned of the economic welfare consequences of the balkanization of international trade in the pursuit of economic security, at a time when interdependence through both trade and finance has become weaponized.There is increasing concern that, for all its sophistication, the global finance system, both official and private, is not a force supporting long-term sustainable growth.In various sessions of the conference, experts addressed the critical issue of how the global financial order (including the monetary order) should be reformed to be more supportive of rising living standards across the world.Further, they deliberated upon whether a division of world trade into regional blocs is inevitable and what this implies for a great majority of the world's countries.The issue of liberal globalization and rising inequality at least within nations, was also discussed.As the G20 countries lead a global debate on the development strategy, ensuring more inclusive outcomes will be of paramount concern for both developing and developed countries.Many experts highlighted the critical role played by treaty-based multilateral institutions designed at the end of the Second World War for securing important global public goods (peace and economic growth) and the pathways for reforming multilateralism in the present era.The discussions held during the policy conference offered several important suggestions for green and sustainable growth which NITI is pursuing through various fora.By design the conference preceded the Leaders' Summit, allowing some of the key ideas and thoughts shared by the experts during the 2-day deliberations to be introduced in the unanimous Leaders' Declaration, a great achievement of the Indian Presidency under Prime Minister Modi's leadership.The insights shared by leading experts during the conference can serve as invaluable benchmarks for researchers, academics, and stakeholders globally.The conference sessions received an overwhelming response from across the world, indicating tremendous interest among the public and academia in the subject matter.This brochure is our collective contribution to the body of knowledge on this subject, and we hope that it will provide valuable inputs for Brazil as it takes over the G20 Presidency from India.Under Prime Minister Modi's leadership and with his strong personal engagement, India took its G20 Presidency very seriously.The Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas model that has shown the way in India can also be a guiding principle for the welfare of the world.In producing a consensus document at a time of great division between major powers, India succeeded in imparting new purpose and momentum to a grouping Foreword vii that had been in danger of irrelevance.At its core, the New Delhi Leaders' Declaration is cross-cutting and driving transformative action in an integrated manner.A collective vision on economic and social empowerment, bridging the digital divide, driving gender-inclusive climate action, and securing women's food security, nutrition, and well-being make the Declaration the most ambitious communique in terms of driving gender equality and women-led development.The Global South's call for enhanced representation and voice in multilateralism as a whole was brought forward, especially through the inclusion of the African Union into the G20 as a permanent member.India's G20 Presidency has focused extensively on working towards better, bigger, and more effective Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) that can deliver finance and support for twenty-first-century issues.India has taken on the MDB initiative from a start made by Indonesia on the capital adequacy framework.As Brazil takes over from India, given the sophistication and integration of its own capital markets, it will take on the task of reshaping the skills and talents of private finance to serve the development challenges of a hurting planet.

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