US president Barack Obama has given Australia a sharp prod on climate change, saying he wanted his future grandchildren to be able to enjoy the Great Barrier Reef. Obama, addressing an enthusiastic audience…
Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon speaks to the media during a press conference at the G20.
AAP/Lukas Coch
US president Barack Obama has pledged US$3 billion to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), as United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged other G20 nations to make contributions to it. The American announcement…
Economic growth is a significant contributor to the climate change crisis.
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The recent US-China climate announcement is a significant development in humanity’s equivocal response to the climate crisis. Despite over four decades of political engagement with climate change, tangible…
Latin American countries, including Argentina, represent a significant trade opportunity for Australia.
Alex Proimos/Flickr
While much of Australia’s media has been covering Abbott’s macho stance on Russian President Vladimir Putin, the G20 meetings will be focusing on how best to improve global trade, which severely declined…
The G20 sherpas might not always be easy to spot, but they’re worth watching.
Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet/Flickr
The spotlight may be on the leaders at this weekend’s G20 Leaders’ Summit in Australia, but who will be behind the leaders at the big table in Brisbane? The G20 sherpas are very senior officials who have…
David Cameron entering parliament on Friday.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Climate change, Tony Abbott’s encounters with Vladimir Putin, the looming G20 and much else have pushed to the sidelines another important development of this week – the indication from Barack Obama that…
The role of Russian president Vladimir Putin, and the other major threats of Ebola and climate change, can’t be overlooked by the G20.
EPA/Alexey Druginyn
Although Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott believes the G20 should focus solely on economic issues, leaving security, social and environmental challenges to other forums, external pressures continue…
Tony Abbott’s round of summiteering has given him a good opportunity to have discussions with a range of other leaders, but it complicated preparations for the G20.
EPA/Barbara Walton
Tony Abbott finds himself the party host caught somewhat off-balance as his guests set off crackers all over the place. The government is – and has been all year – shouting that it wants this weekend’s…
OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria, right, is welcomed by Queensland’s Governor Paul de Jersey at Brisbane International Airport.
Patrick Hamilton/AAP
The G20 summit must “go structural, go social and go green”, says OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria. Speaking at Griffith University’s pre-summit conference in Brisbane, Mr Gurria said trade, investment…
By prioritizing economic growth and the fossil fuel industry over environmental protection, Australian PM Tony Abbott and Canadian PM Stephen Harper are a formidable barrier to a global climate deal.
Office of Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper
Having reached a landmark agreement with China this week to limit greenhouse gas emissions, US president Barack Obama heads to Australia for the G20 summit of economic superpowers. The China deal will…
Russian naval soldiers line up in front of the Russian warship Varyag.
EPA/Yun Suk-Bong
The Defence Department is watching Russian naval vessels that are currently transiting international waters to the north of Australia ahead of the weekend G20 attended by president Vladimir Putin. In the…
President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands during a press conference in Beijing, at which they announced the deal.
EPA/How Hwee Young
After Tony Abbott did everything he could to keep discussion of climate change out of the G20, he has been ambushed almost on the eve of the weekend meeting. The Prime Minister did not have forewarning…
The G20 represents 84% of the world economy.
Jason Reed/AAP
Charis Palmer, The Conversation and Emil Jeyaratnam, The Conversation
At the G20 meeting in Brisbane on the weekend we are going to hear a lot of talk about current accounts, GDP, CPI as well as a whole blizzard of more obscure acronyms and economic measures. To help you…
Many governments are realising high-growth tech companies have the keys to their country’s economic future.
Peter Dasilva/EPA/AAP
The world was a very different place in December 1999 when the first G20 met in Berlin. Steve Jobs had just taken back the reins at Apple, but Facebook, Google, Twitter and the dot-com bust were figments…
Pressure is building ahead of the Brisbane G20 Leaders’ Summit for action on tax avoidance by multinationals.
Andrew Sutherland/Flickr
Tax avoidance by multinational enterprises is not new. But the current level of political will and public outcry on the issue is uncommon in the history of taxation. The upcoming G20 meeting in Brisbane…
The Toronto G20 summit showed what starts out as a peaceful protest can turn into a violent clash.
EPA/Sergei Ilinitsky
The Brisbane G20 summit is shaping up to to be Australia’s largest security operation. In recent decades, most large-scale protests in Australia have been relatively peaceful events, but the policing of…
The G20 might seem like a tasty target for hackers, but any real threats will come from elsewhere.
Imaginary Museum Projects: News Tableaus/Flickr
You might have seen reports that the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) has issued cyber security advice ahead of the G20 Leaders Summit in Brisbane this weekend. So under the watchful eye of the media…
Shifting bank risk to taxpayers is deeply unpopular, and there is an alternative.
Lisa Norwood/Flickr
In the last decade or so, the global financial landscape has endured two major shocks - the first with the 2007 collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market in the United States, and the second emanating…
The G20 of today faces a different type of crisis to the one it was founded on.
Jason Hargrove/Flickr
To understand this week’s G20 Summit being held in Brisbane, Australia, and measure its success, requires a sense of the history of economic crisis and change. Recurring crises have shaped global institutions…
Australia’s standard of living is under threat.
Scott Woodman/Flickr
When the G20 finance ministers agreed in February to significantly raise global growth, they locked in a goal of lifting collective GDP by more than 2%. This was a cumulative goal - that is a total of…