G20 Energy Ministers strive for sustainable development and market stability

The G20 Energy Ministerial meeting reaffirmed its commitment to greater international cooperation in ensuring the resilience of energy systems and affordable and secure energy for all.

The two-day deliberations acknowledged the unprecedented impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on energy markets and paved the ways for the sector’s recovery efforts. The Meeting assumed vital importance against the backdrop of a global pandemic and was devoted to the energy market stability amidst low oil and gas prices and lacklustre demand.

The final Communiqué crystallised the resolve of the G20 countries to utilise the widest variety of technologies and fuels to ensure a stable and uninterrupted supply of energy for economic growth. It is not a coincidence that, as per decision of the G20 Members, the GECF has become a part of the dialogue and was directly referred to in the final Communiqué.

It noted that in order to enhance energy security, “the role of open, flexible, transparent, competitive, stable and reliable energy markets, as well as stable, predictable, necessary, fair, and non-discriminatory, regulatory frameworks in promoting market stability and investments”. On this note, the GECF, alongside the IEA, IEF, IRENA, OPEC, and other peers, was invited to further consider this matter in their respective work programmes.

In the context of circular carbon economy for cleaner and more sustainable energy systems, the Communiqué highlights the crucial role of the GECF and other relevant international organisations in promoting public and private investments, innovative public as well as private financing, policy enablers, and cross-sector collaborations.

These steps are largely in line with the previous G20 announcements, including the 2020 Statement of the G20 Extraordinary Energy Ministers Meeting, 2019 Communiqué of G20 Ministerial Meeting on Energy Transitions and Global Environment for Sustainable Growth in Japan and the 2018 Communiqué in Argentina.

This ethos is also echoed by the GECF – a coalition of 20 of the major natural gas exporting countries – and reflected in its guiding documents at the highest political level of the Heads of State and Government, in particular in the 2019 Malabo Declaration, which was the outcome of the 5th GECF Summit.

To raise the voice of natural gas industry, the GECF called on the group of 20 major industrialised and emerging economies, many of whom are consumers of the GECF commodity, to renew their faith in cooperation and multilateralism to bring about prosperity for all.