Keynote and Q&A: Minister for the Environment and Consumer Protection Steffi Lemke
Keynote “Resource efficiency and circular economy as key to solving global environmental crises – responsibility and role of the G7” followed by Q&A.
Multilateralism
Keynote: Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck
Our future depends on our ability to transform our economic system – to take stewardship in transforming the system in accordance with our collective goals. This requires, first and foremost, reliable measures of progress so that we can evaluate if we reached our economic, social and environmental goals. Next to growth in material gain, we … Read more
Confronting “Deglobalization” in the multilateral trading system
The first two decades of this millennium were marked by major political, economic and geopolitical disruptions. This has led many analysts to predict that the world economy is entering a phase of “deglobalization” that is, a retreat from the globalization process. This policy brief discusses how “deglobalization” affects the role and relevance of international trade … Read more
Digital trade: Top trade negotiation priorities for cross-border data flows and online trade in services
This policy brief sets out recommendations to achieve a new multilateral framework of trade rules in the digital arena, thereby facilitating continued digital transformation of services and growth in cross-border flows of data. The present moment is critical. Successful conclusion of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations on E-Commerce will support trade in digital services, underpinned … Read more
Multilateral coordination and exchange for sustainable global value chains
While participation in global value chains (GVCs) is widely associated with benefits for countries’ development and growth, its environmental and social costs become increasingly evident. Representing core buyer and supplier countries in GVCs, the G20 is particularly suited to tackle this global challenge. We recommend the G20 should become a key global forum for exchange … Read more
Diplomacy and interferences in social media: Contrasting disinformation and protecting multilateralism
Effective interstate communication is key to multilateral governance, but certain phenomena in the current global information ecosystem challenge it. The malicious diffusion of fake news and disinformation through social media and messaging apps deserves special attention, since it can hamper cooperation, reduce mutual trust and foster new and old conflicts. This policy brief highlights the … Read more
An open, flexible and “fit-for-purpose” multilateralism
In recent years, the multilateral world order has come to suffer from the resurgence of protectionism and great power rivalry that have fostered divergence and fragmentation in the global arena. Nonetheless, the growing interconnections between world economies and emerging global challenges, among which the COVID-19 pandemic, prove the need to enhance international cooperation to tackle … Read more
Building a more inclusive, people-centred multilateralism
Recent calls by scholars for more multi-stakeholder approaches to international cooperation are a welcome effort to make international politics more inclusive, however even these approaches sometimes ignore or downplay one very important stakeholder: ordinary citizens. Public perceptions that multilateralism and global governance are dominated by elites, and therefore reflective of elite priorities, is one factor … Read more