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Reaching a New Peak in G7 Summit Decision Making in 2022

John Kirton, G7 Research Group
December 23, 2022

Almost all G7 summits, taking place in person or virtually, issue outcome documents that publicly and authoritatively report what G7 leaders have discussed and collectively decided to do. From these documents, the G7 Research Group, based at the University of Toronto, identifies and analyzes the commitments — the precise, future oriented, politically binding statements of what the G7 leaders at the summit have decided to do.

During 2022 as a whole, G7 leaders held a new high of five summits and issued additional five statements, for a total of 10 (see Appendix A). Six were in the first half of the year, from February to June, spurred by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Four were in the autumn, from October to December. Two of the in-person summits were held on the margins of a summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organization members in Brussels and, for the first time, during a G20 summit, in Bali.

Together these 10 summits and statements produced 767 commitments, far more than in any year since the G7 summit started in 1975. They were led by the 547 commitments at the regular summit at Elmau in June, followed by 52 made on February 24, and 49 made on December 12.

The Culmination at the Virtual Summit on December 12

At their virtual summit on December 12, 2022, as the culmination of Germany's year as G7 host in 2022, the G7 leaders made 49 commitments (see Appendix B). They were led by those on Russia's war against Ukraine with 25 (for 51%), followed by climate change with six (12%), gender with four (8%), biodiversity and infrastructure with three each (6%), and macroeconomic policy, development, food and agriculture, and health, with two each (4%).

Commitments can be considered as either high or low binding. High-binding commits are those where the G7 promises to do more than they have before, including to do something new. Low-binding commitments are those where the G7 promises to do as much as, or less, than they have before (e.g., "we reaffirm," "we will continue to").

Of the 49 commitments G7 leaders made on December 12, there were 32 (65%) high-binding ones and 17 (35%) were low binding. On Russia–Ukraine, 64% of the commitments were high binding and 36% were low binding. On climate change, 66% were high binding and 33% were low binding. Those on gender were split evenly. On both biodiversity and infrastructure, 100% were high binding.

By subject, the distribution of commitments on December 12 was significantly different than that of the 547 commitments made by G7 leaders at their regular annual in-person summit six months earlier, at Elmau on June 26–28 (see Appendix C). At Elmau the 63 commitments on regional security stood first, but took only 12% of the total, whereas on December 12 they soared to a majority of 51% (including many commitments that dealt with energy in this context). Climate change again stood second, at about the same portion, with 11% at Elmau and 12% on December 12. A big change came on gender: at Elmau it ranked 10th, with 22 commitments (4%), but on December 12 it ranked third, with 4 commitments (8%). Moreover, at Elmau the environment as a whole ranked seventh with 36 commitments (7%), whereas on December 12 the biodiversity component alone had three commitments (6%). Not surprisingly, the regular Elmau Summit made commitments on 25 subjects, whereas the much shorter December 12 one did so on only nine.

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Appendix A: G7 Leaders' Summits and Statements in 2022

Date

Type

Commitments

February 24

Statement

52

March 11

Statement

19

March 24

Summit, Brussels, NATO

30

April 7

Statement

17

May 8

Statement

27

June 26–28

Summit, Elmau

547

October 11

Summit, videoconference

13

November 16

Summit, with NATO, at G20 Bali Summit

03

December 2

Statement, with Australia

10

December 12

Summit, Videoconference

49

Total

10 (5 summits, 5 statements)

767

Identified by John Kirton on December 17, 2022

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Appendix B: Commitments at the G7 Summit on December 12, 2022

Subject

Number

Percentage

Russia–Ukraine

25

51

Climate change

6

12

Gender

4

8

Biodiversity

3

6

Infrastructure

3

6

Macroeconomics

2

4

Development

2

4

Food and agriculture

2

4

Health

2

4

Total

49

100

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Commitments in the G7 Leaders' December 12 Statement

Russia–Ukraine (25)

  1. Today, we reaffirm our unwavering support for and solidarity with Ukraine in the face of ongoing Russian war of aggression for as long as it takes.
  2. We are determined to help Ukraine repair, restore and defend its critical energy and water infrastructure.
  3. We will help Ukraine in meeting its winter preparedness needs,
  4. will continue to support Ukraine's civilian resilience,
  5. and will further enhance our efforts on this during the international conference to be held in Paris on 13 December.
  6. We are determined that Russia will ultimately need to pay for the restoration of critical infrastructure damaged or destroyed through its brutal war.
  7. We will hold President Putin and those responsible to account in accordance with international law.
  8. We reiterate that Russia's irresponsible nuclear rhetoric is unacceptable and that any use of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons would be met with severe consequences.
  9. Building on our commitments so far, we will continue to galvanise international support to help address Ukraine's urgent short-term financing needs.
  10. We ask our Finance Ministers to convene shortly to discuss a joint approach for coordinated budget support in 2023. We affirm that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should be central to this effort.
  11. We firmly support efforts to secure Ukraine's immediate financial stability and its recovery and reconstruction towards a sustainable, prosperous and democratic future, in line with its European path.
  12. We will build on the outcomes of the International Expert Conference on the Recovery, Reconstruction and Modernisation of Ukraine held on 25 October in Berlin, as well as at the Ukraine Recovery Conference on 21-22 June 2023 in London.
  13. In particular, with a view to supporting Ukraine's repair, recovery and reconstruction, together with Ukraine and our international partners and in close coordination with relevant International Organisations and International Financial Institutions, we will establish a multi-agency Donor Coordination Platform.
  14. Through this platform, we will coordinate existing mechanisms to provide ongoing short- and long-term support – with particular responsibility of the Finance Track for short-term financial support –,
  15. coordinate further international funding and expertise,
  16. and encourage Ukraine's reform agenda as well as private sector led growth.
  17. We will also set up a Secretariat for the Platform.
  18. We will each designate a senior government representative to oversee the set-up of the platform and ongoing coordination efforts, and ask them to convene as soon as possible in January 2023.
  19. We will continue to coordinate efforts to meet Ukraine's urgent requirements for military and defense equipment with an immediate focus on providing Ukraine with air defense systems and capabilities.
  20. We support the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) efforts to establish a Safety and Security Zone.
  21. We remain committed to our unprecedented coordinated sanctions measures in response to Russia's war of aggression.
  22. We will maintain and intensify economic pressure on Russia and those who evade and undermine our restrictive measures.
  23. We will continue to shield vulnerable countries that are severely impacted by the repercussions of Russia's war of aggression and its weaponisation of energy and food.
  24. We reaffirm our intention to phase out Russian-origin crude oil and petroleum products from our domestic markets.
  25. We reiterate our decision that the price cap on Russian origin petroleum products will enter into force on 5 February 2023.

Macroeconomics (2)

  1. We will continue to use all available policy tools to maintain global financial, macroeconomic and price stability and long-term fiscal sustainability, while providing targeted support to those most in need and working collaboratively to strengthen our collective economic security to external shocks and wider risks.
  2. We will make public investments and structural reforms to promote long term growth.

Development (2)

  1. We will further coordinate to respond to the urgent needs of most vulnerable countries
  2. and will encourage private investment in developing and emerging markets as a key enabler of sustainable economic pathways.

Food and Agriculture (2)

  1. We will keep up our ambition to address global food insecurity, including through the Global Alliance for Food Security (GAFS).
  2. We will keep supporting the delivery of grain and fertilisers to vulnerable countries in need and welcome the recent operations led by the World Food Programme (WFP) on this front.

Climate Change (6)

  1. Reaffirming our steadfast commitment to implement the Paris Agreement and the outcomes of COP26 and COP27, we commit to urgent, ambitious, and inclusive climate action in this decade to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
  2. We reaffirm our commitment to reach net-zero emissions no later than 2050.
  3. To that end, and building on our statement adopted in June in Elmau, we endorse the Climate Club's terms of reference as established by the Climate Club Task Force and hereby establish an open and cooperative international Climate Club.
  4. Focusing in particular on the decarbonisation of industries, we will thereby contribute to unlocking green growth. We invite international partners to join the Climate Club and to participate in the further elaboration of its concept and structure.
  5. In doing so, we will continue working closely together with relevant International Organisations and stakeholders.
  6. We ask the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in tandem with the International Energy Agency (IEA), to host an interim secretariat working together with other International Organisations.

Biodiversity (3)

  1. Recalling our commitment to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, we will work intensively towards a successful outcome at Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP15, in particular the adoption of an ambitious and effective global biodiversity framework, with clear and measurable targets and its prompt and swift implementation.
  2. In this regard we are committed to mobilising resources from all sources and to substantially increasing our national and international funding for nature by 2025 to support the implementation of an ambitious global framework.
  3. We encourage countries beyond the G7 to join us in this endeavor.

Infrastructure (3)

  1. Accelerating our contributions to the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) to make our global partners a better offer on sustainable, inclusive, climate-resilient, and quality infrastructure investment, we welcome the progress on the Just Energy Transitions Partnerships (JETP) with South Africa and Indonesia as flagship projects for multilateral cooperation, just energy transition and sustainable investment and look forward to swiftly concluding negotiations on a JETP with Vietnam, as well as to making further progress with India and Senegal.
  2. We will intensify our cooperation within a PGII working group to deliver on our joint ambition to mobilise up to 600 billion dollars by 2027,
  3. and on JETPs, we will coordinate through the JETP working group.

Gender (4)

  1. Reaffirming our full commitment to realise gender equality and to consistently mainstream gender equality into all policy areas,
  2. we welcome the key recommendations by the Gender Equality Advisory Council (GEAC) and look forward to receiving the GEAC's full report by the end of the year.
  3. We thank this year's GEAC for its important work, reiterate our intention to convene the GEAC as a standing feature of all G7 Presidencies,
  4. and look forward to further strengthening it.

Health (2)

  1. We will step up our efforts on training and qualifying health workforce as well as strengthening surveillance capacities to detect outbreaks and variants as early as possible by integrating the One Health approach.
  2. We will continue to support science to develop safe and effective vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.

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Appendix C: G7 Elmau Summit Commitments, June 26–28, 2022

Subject

Total

%

Leaders' Communiqué

Executive Summary

Climate Club

G7 Statement on Support for Ukraine

Annex to G7 Statement on Support for Ukraine

Chair's Summary: Joining Forces to Accelerate Clean and Just Transition towards Climate Neutrality

Democratic Resiliencies Statement

Statement on the Missile Attack on a Shopping Mall in Kremenchuck

Statement on Global Food Security

Regional security

63

12%

19

9

 

28

3

 

 

4

 

Climate change

58

11%

41

4

4

 

 

4

5

 

 

Energy

51

9%

32

4

 

3

 

10

2

 

 

Human rights

44

8%

24

3

 

13

 

 

3

1

 

Democracy

42

8%

15

4

 

1

 

 

22

 

 

Health

41

7%

35

2

 

 

 

 

4

 

 

Environment

36

7%

33

 

 

2

 

 

1

 

 

Food and agriculture

35

6%

4

4

 

2

 

 

1

 

24

Digital economy

25

5%

23

 

 

 

 

 

2

 

 

Gender

22

4%

18

1

 

 

 

 

3

 

 

Trade

19

3%

11

1

 

6

 

 

1

 

 

Macroeconomics

19

3%

14

3

 

1

 

 

1

 

 

Crime and corruption

16

3%

6

 

 

6

 

 

4

 

 

Peace and security

15

3%

2

1

1

 

 

 

11

 

 

Development

14

3%

11

 

 

 

 

 

3

 

 

Labour and employment

13

2%

13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Infrastructure

8

1%

5

1

 

2

 

 

 

 

 

Non-proliferation

7

1%

7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

International cooperation

6

1%

5

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Terrorism

3

0.5%

2

 

 

 

 

 

1

 

 

Social policy

3

0.5%

 

 

 

 

 

 

3

 

 

IFI/IGO reform

2

0.3%

1

 

 

 

 

 

1

 

 

International taxation

2

0.3%

1

 

 

 

 

 

1

 

 

Social policy

1

0.2%

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Accountability

1

0.2%

 

 

 

1

 

 

 

 

 

Total

547

100%

324

38

5

65

3

14

69

5

24

IFI = international financial institution; IGO = intergovernmental organization.
Identified by Brittaney Warren, June 28, 2022.

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