Reading the “Apulia G7 Leaders’ Communiqué” from the “2024 G7 summit” held in Borgo Egnazia (Fasano) in Apulia, Italy, from June 13-15, 2024, might give the impression, the world is heading in some good direction. Yes, we want to acknowledge, there are quite some well chosen approaches. We miss the governance to actually deliver e.g. on global warming, climate change, and the loss of biodiversity, “more stable and fairer international tax system fit for the 21st century”, or “launch an action plan on the use of AI in the world of work and develop a brand to support the implementation of the International Code of Conduct for Organizations Developing Advanced AI Systems”. (2024 G7 summit, Apulia G7 Leaders’ Communiqué, p. 2).
G7 is loosing governing power in several ways – decline in the share of global population (ca. 10% in 2021, declining, see graph from “Our World in Data“), decline in the share of global “Gross Domestic Product” (GDP) (ca. 30% in 2022) and mainly China and India are taking over.
G7 contributes only ca. 18% to global “Greenhouse Gas” (GHG) emissions with a tendency of declining. This is basically a very good development on one hand but on the other hand, it shows that 82% of global GHG emissions are out of the direct influence of the G7 countries.
The major countries are China and India, not only in terms of volume, also in terms of fast growing indicators.
Furthermore, the annual turnover from the 10 largest corporations increased to about 6% (ca. 4,5 trillion USD p.a.) in comparison to the “Gross Domestic Product” (GDP) from the 10 largest countries (ca. 78,5 trillion USD p.a.). With “Saudi Arabian Oil Group” (Aramco), “China National Petroleum Corporation” (CNPC), “China Petrochemical Corporation”, “ExxonMobil Corporation” (Exxon) and “Shell plc” (Shell) are 6 of the larges 20 global corporations within the “Oil and Gas” industries, producing the majority of global GHG.
Although G7 sticks with the 1,5°C goal from the “Paris Agreement” (https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement), there is no clear indication, how they can actually impact the business model from these “Oil and Gas” corporations. And these “Oil and Gas” corporations will continue maximising their profit (DCV, ROI, or Shareholder Value) as much and as long as possible. That is what corporations are supposed to do as long as they are allowed to do. So they will not stop maximising their profit based on their current business model, unless they are forced to do so (regulations, markets decline, etc.).
G7 does not show the global governing power to actually successful deliver on that.