Minister Dion George sets five key priorities for G20 to tackle climate crisis and inequality

Speaking on Tuesday at the first Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group (ECSWG) meeting under South Africa’s G20 presidency, Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Minister Dion George set out the five major environmental and climate change priorities on the agenda for the G20.

These will be the pathways in which G20 nations are set to accelerate efforts if they hope to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Despite efforts to date, poverty and hunger remain rife, with a long way to go to secure planetary protection, universal education and health coverage.

George said poverty levels were worsening and CO2 emissions reached record highs last year. South Africa was now attempting to use its G20 presidency to fast-track action on the just transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient and inclusive society.

“These priorities of the G20 ECSWG for this year are viewed as critical enablers to address poverty, create employment and meet other sustainable development goals, thereby contributing towards the global effort to respond to the triple complexities of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss,” said the minister.

George hailed South Africa as leading by example on this, noting the country’s Climate Change Act proclaimed last week (barring the deferral of a few significant sections of the Act).

Read more: ‘Doesn’t have teeth’ — experts voice concern about deferral of ‘key’ clauses in Climate Change Act

The minister praised the increased roll-out of renewable energy in South Africa over the years, which he said was “driving the decarbonisation of South Africa’s energy system”.

Read more: Ramokgopa pledges to be ‘ultra-aggressive’ with roll-out of renewable energy

George also highlighted the implementation of Expanded Producer Responsibility schemes and circular economy initiatives, which he said were improving waste management. However, last week the parliamentary committee on environment was briefed by the DFFE on the non-compliance of 60% of landfills in South Africa.

The minister noted that the task remained immense.

He stressed that multilateralism had a critical role to play in addressing the complexities of poverty, unemployment, hunger, inequality, environmental degradation and climate change.

South Africa’s G20 presidency outlined an ambitious agenda for this working group, with five interrelated priorities and a series of subsequent deliverables it hoped to achieve (ultimately to advance the achievements of the SDGs, although with less than five years left, time was fast running out).

Priorities for South Africa’s presidency of the G20 Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group: 

1. Biodiversity and conservation


2. Land degradation, desertification and drought


3. Chemicals and waste management


4. Climate change and air quality


5. Oceans and coasts

George said these priorities, which are unpacked below along with their deliverables, had been carefully chosen and were built on the outcomes of the previous G20 Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group presidencies.

Central was Brazil, India and Indonesia, which are also aligned with the African Union’s agenda 2063, The Africa We Want, the blueprint for the continent’s sustainable development.

Biodiversity and conservation

With a biodiversity loss crisis upon us, with extremely high rates of biodiversity loss across the globe, the first priority set out is biodiversity and conservation.

The ECSWG will focus on the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework and the biodiversity economy to protect what still exists and try to recover what has been lost.

The working group intends to work on National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans as the main instruments of implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework and the Convention on Biological Diversity nationally.

The key deliverables in this priority are:

• Mainstreaming biodiversity protection measures in Africa’s continental trade policies.


• Updating national biodiversity strategies and action plans and national reports to incorporate key elements, goals and targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework.


• Piloting biodiversity economy voluntary sustainability standards.


• Developing national models for Biodiversity Accounts to measure environmental impacts.


• Setting up technical and scientific cooperation support centres in G20 countries for the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework (ie, to help countries meet biodiversity commitments).

Land degradation, desertification and drought

The second priority is having a serious effect on food security globally, among other effects, with land being degraded worldwide as a result of human-induced actions which exploit land, causing its utility, biodiversity, soil fertility and overall health to decline.

To address this, the ECSWG has set the following deliverables in this priority area:

• Financial commitments from G20 nations to combat land degradation, desertification and drought.


• Learn from large-scale projects like Africa’s Great Green Wall, a massive reforestation effort across the Sahel.


• Support for land degradation neutrality to restore more land than is lost.


• Strengthen the ability of communities and governments to mitigate desertification, land degradation and drought.


• Create more funding mechanisms for sustainable farming and land management.

Chemicals and waste management

The group is looking to address the rising and deadly crisis of chemical pollution and waste in its third priority through sub-priorities of sustainable chemicals management, the circular economy, waste management, waste to energy, and extended producer responsibility implementation.

In his opening remarks on Tuesday, George urged the G20 to support the development of a legally binding international treaty to combat plastic pollution, as agreed at the United Nations Environment Assembly in 2022.

He said the growing global demand and supply of pesticides and industrial chemicals, as well as mounting waste from the rapid increase in critical minerals mining and processing, presented a significant health and environmental risk if poorly managed.

The deliverables include:

• Developing a global action plan to ensure hazardous chemicals are safely managed.


• Transparency in the chemical industry, preventing harmful substances from being dumped in vulnerable regions.


• Promoting circular economy practices, where materials are reused rather than discarded.


• Encouraging extended producer responsibility, meaning manufacturers take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products, including waste management.

Climate change and air quality

The fourth priority addresses the just transition, loss and damage, adaptation and including climate resilient development, climate finance and air quality and land degradation neutrality, a global goal to restore more land than is lost.

The minister noted that for the primary outcome of the G20 presidency this year, South Africa would explore ways that the G20 could leverage opportunities to increase the scale and flows of climate finance.

This, he said, was critical to enable the just transition, mitigation and adaptation efforts as they worked to ensure that “required investments reach the most vulnerable of society”.

The deliverables for the working group, further explained, are:

• Securing funding and technical support for climate adaptation for developing nations.


• Developing strategies to address loss and damage from climate disasters.


• Increasing climate finance, ensuring more resources go toward clean energy and sustainable development.


• Sharing air quality data and policies to reduce pollution in key industries.

Oceans and coasts

The final priority covers the vast blue expanses between nations where pollution can run rampant in various forms and enforcement of rules and regulations prove extremely tricky.

The working group, in its “oceans and coasts” priority, is focusing on marine spatial planning as an integrated approach to improving the rational planning, along with management and governance of the ocean space and marine resources.

The deliverables in this include:

• Expanding marine spatial planning as a tool to balance ocean conservation with economic activities such as fishing and shipping.


• Identifying gaps in ocean governance and proposing solutions to improve marine protection.


• Developing scientific tools for better management of marine ecosystems.


• Addressing marine plastic pollution, including better tracking of plastic waste from ships and fishing gear.

George said that to make progress on addressing these priorities in an integrated and coordinated way, developing-economy countries required access to scaled-up new and additional grants and “highly concessional finance”.

“It is expected that the outcome of this first virtual G20 ECSWG meeting will provide strategic direction and a common understanding among G20 member states on the key environmental and climate change priorities and deliverables,” said George.

This was the first of three G20 ECSWG meetings, and one ECSWG ministerial meeting will be held in South Africa. The first meeting takes place virtually from 25-28 March 2025 (virtual); the second from 14-18 July 2025 at Kruger National Park; and the third in October 2025 in Cape Town.

The ministerial meeting will be held back-to-back with the third ECSWG meeting in October 2025. DM

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