Every year the G20 meets, and every year, we read the news, staring at images of “family photos” of the world leaders. But what even is the G20, and why do William Clarke students even have to bother thinking about it?  

The G20 stands for group of 20, which is the top 20 economic pillars on earth. So essentially, the G20 is mainly about the world economy. Now you may be asking “I don’t do economics, so why do I need to know about an economics summit?” Fair enough. But the G20 is more than about economics, and it is often entwined with politics.  

The discussions between the members of the G20 are generally regarding the price hikes that everyone of us feels (those $3 cookies from the canteen are a part of this). 

Australia, along with Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, The UK, USA and the European Union are all members of the G20. Spain is a permanent guest as they are a major economic power, however they were not as economically powerful at the time of formation.  

The war between Russia and Ukraine and the rising tensions between the United States and China, sent inflation soaring so that every person can feel the effects. Not to mention, the looming threat of a global recession, the nuclear threats from North Korea and the rapid rate of global warming. If we cast our memories back to the events of this year, we can guess a few of the topics that our world leaders are going to be discussing this year.  

This year, the G20 summit is held in Indonesia, and the Indonesian President Joko Widodo is trying to manage the political minefield that is the G20 this year.  

There are three main concerns for this year’s political scene. This includes the strengthening of global health infrastructure (also known as the aftereffects of a global pandemic), ensuring an inclusive digital economy transformation (the rise of online banking during said global pandemic) and promoting sustainable energy transition (we can never forget about global warming).  

Why do we even have to care about the G20 summit? There are obviously more interesting things on such as the FIFA World Cup opening. The simple answer is that we elected our leaders (or our parents did) so we can have our voice in matters which really matter like this.  

The G20 summit holds the fate of the world by holding the fate of the world’s economy in their hands.