G20 2025: Can the world break the global governance deadlock?

The 2025 G20 summit, under South Africa's presidency, comes as the world faces a fragile recovery marked by economic pressures, geopolitical tensions, and rising calls for reform. As the major economies band together to tackle shared risks and differing interests, observers are paying close attention to see if the meeting can renew momentum for multilateral cooperation and promote fair global governance.

G20 countries wield outsized influence: they make up roughly 85 percent of global GDP and about 75 percent of world trade, positioning them as key players in tackling global challenges.

But despite that heft, the global economy faces challenges. The OECD's September interim report forecasts world growth slowing from 3.3 percent in 2024 to 3.2 percent in 2025 and 2.9 percent in 2026, warning that rising trade barriers and policy uncertainty are reducing investment.

In that context, the G20 faces pressure to advance a renewed multilateral effort on trade, climate action, financial reform, and technological governance.

Artificial intelligence is becoming a crucial focus at this summit. In September 2025, the G20's AI Task Force released a chair's statement emphasizing the need for inclusive, ethical, and secure AI development, underpinned by strong data governance.

The declaration emphasized "data free flow with trust," proposing more international alignment on technical standards and broader access to diverse datasets.

Meanwhile, China has advanced its own proposals for a global AI cooperation body. In July 2025, Premier Li Qiang proposed a new organization to coordinate AI development across countries, calling for greater innovation cooperation to achieve more groundbreaking results.

The Digital Cooperation Organization also launched its AI-REAL toolkit at the G20 Digital Economy and Artificial Intelligence Ministers' Meeting in Cape Town, providing governments with a practical roadmap for assessing AI readiness and guiding responsible policy adoption.

Climate and green finance are also expected to dominate discussions. As countries submit new national climate pledges (NDCs) this year, many have committed to stronger emissions reductions.

China, for its part, announced its 2035 NDCs in September, pledging to cut overall net greenhouse gas emissions by 7 to 10 percent from peak levels, and to expand wind and solar capacity to more than six times the 2020 levels, targeting a total of 3,600 gigawatts.

At the same time, Beijing has been increasing investments in low-carbon energy and promoting green finance, a cornerstone of its strategy to help close the global climate funding gap. In recent years, the country has advanced its carbon sequestration efforts, expanded its carbon trading system, and accelerated the shift to clean energy. By the end of August 2025, China's national carbon market had recorded a trading volume of 189 million tonnes and a transaction value of 18.1 billion yuan (about $2.54 billion), with 2024 being the strongest year since its 2021 launch.

Beyond thematic debates, the summit also shows a deeper change in the G20's role. When China hosted the G20 in Hangzhou in 2016, leaders focused on growth, innovation, and coordination.

Today, the agenda has evolved, with governance in finance, technology, and climate now taking center stage. The Global Governance Initiative, proposed by China earlier this year, highlights this change.

The initiative, which arose amid increasing inequality and ongoing poverty that still affects regions like Africa, calls for a fairer international system where all countries, especially developing ones, have greater say.

In the global context, "deficits in peace, development, security, and trust are deepening, while existing mechanisms struggle to respond," Wang Fan, president of China Foreign Affairs University, told Xinhua. "Advancing reform of global governance is the only way to bridge these gaps."

Still, the road ahead is far from smooth. Tensions often surface between richer and poorer nations, between technology powers and emerging states, and around critical issues such as climate finance.

For low-income and developing nations, the stakes are particularly high. Many see the 2025 summit as a rare opportunity to push for equitable climate support, rethink debt architecture and ensure that AI benefits do not deepen global inequality. But if the summit achieves meaningful progress, it could signal a new phase of global governance — one less focused on growth alone and more on openly shared responsibility.