The G20 at the summit level has emerged as the “premier forum for international economic cooperation” in the wake of the global financial crisis. In the second of CIGI’s series of G20 papers, Barry Carin, Paul Heinbecker, Gordon Smith and Ramesh Thakur discuss which global problems could be on future G20 agendas and offer ideas as to how the new “G” grouping can achieve both effectiveness and legitimacy.

There are serious questions about the ability or willingness of states, individually and collectively, to respond to the most pressing environmental challenges. The erosion of confidence in and the dominance of a state-centric governance model has simultaneously resulted from and provoked significant innovation. Corporations, social and environmental organizations, private-public partnerships, substate governments, and even local communities have already begun to conceive and implement governance initiatives to address global environmental problems. This paper reflects upon these innovative institutional dynamics and assesses their prospects to produce effective, legitimate, and equitable outcomes. It concludes with a series of questions to guide future analysis and to better understand the prospects for improving the practice of global environmental governance.

CIGI maintained a multimedia G8 Summit blog to track and assess developments in L'Aquila, Italy, as they unfolded. The legitimacy of the G8 as an international decision-making body has been challenged by the creation of the G20, a more representative institution that acknowledges the growing strength of emergent powers such as BRICSAM.

Distinguished Fellow Andrew Cooper delivered a keynote address at the 8th FES-SWP North-South Dialogue. He discussed how the G20 has served an important symbolic function and has significant instrumental value.