Rio de Janeiro, 11 April 2024: Brazil has taken up the 2024 G20 Presidency with the theme of Building a Just World and a Sustainable Planet - with key priority areas of fighting inequality, promoting social inclusion, and fighting hunger; combating climate change, promoting energy transition and sustainable development; and reforming global governance architecture. 

In support of this, key G20 engagement group Think Tank20 (T20) organised a three-day innovation dialogue to discuss trends and directions in innovation policies and disruptive technologies and their impact and opportunities for development. About 100 experts, both national and international, representing six T20 taskforces, joined the deliberations at this G20 side event in Rio de Janeiro to develop the G20 future vision, which is crucial for the challenges at the forefront of science and technology.  

This dialogue among the academic community, policy makers, and business leaders promoted discussions on foresight and development, focusing on three main themes: agriculture technological and social frontiers, frontiers in medicine and public policy challenges, and energy transition and sustainability: horizons and alternatives.

The opening plenary session was led by Ambassador Marcos Carmuru, President of the Centre for International Relations Brazil (CEBRI) and Ana Celia Castro, Director of the Brazilian School of High Studies, the Federal University of Rio De Janeiro. The high-level panel included Dr Venkatachalam Anbumozhi, ERIA Director of Research Strategy and Innovations, who provided insights on innovation issues shaping G20's future vision, particularly in the process of production and consumption of science for segments of society in: the search for new knowledge, innovation, the effectiveness of investment and financing instruments, and the improvement of institutional frameworks.  

The second-day plenary session, organised as a roundtable, took the theme Technological Foresight as an Institutional Competence and its Political Objectives. It was chaired by Guilherme Ary Plonski, Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies (IEA) at the University of São Paulo, with the focus on Brazilian experiences in foresight and scenario veiling. Dr Anbumozhi joined the session as a discussant and shared the Asian perspective on modelling sustainable development, making assumptions, and interpreting the results for policy-making.

The three breakout discussions on agriculture, medicine, and energy transition defined the G20 strategic science, technology, and innovation priorities and plans, in line with the challenges of the 21st century and emerging economies to integrate strategies with social, political, environmental, and economic proposals, in addition to exploring their results in the pursuit of fair, inclusive, competitive, and sustainable development.

Dr Anbumozhi co-chaired the breakout session on energy transition and emphasized the need for South-South cooperation and technology and innovation flows in G20 in support of the Global Biofuel Alliance (GBA). The main challenges for the countries in the Global South are limited access to technology and infrastructure hindering the development of a sustainable biofuel sector, particularly in the rural regions. Hence, it was recommended for GBA to act as a platform for research and development, knowledge sharing, and collaboration on biofuel technologies and technology transfer between developed and developing countries.

This could involve establishing research partnerships between institutions under the RD20 initiative, organizing technology showcases and demonstration projects in rural areas, and supporting joint ventures for technology transfer between companies and rural entrepreneurs. The RD20 is an initiative for international research and development aiming to strengthen international collaboration by leading research institutes in G20 countries and regions which develop the world’s most advanced technologies for achieving carbon neutrality.

The closing panel of the third day, moderated by Ambassador Marcos Carmuru and Professor Alexandre Gomide, discussed the challenges, constraints, and possibilities for G20's future, and reforming international governance architecture. The panel discussed the architectural outlines of a global economic council as a synergetic approach to G20 sherpa and ministerial discussions. The council would represent all states, while the existing G20 has no representation system.

Joining the panel, Dr Anbumozhi described the broader context of global government in which the G20 was formed and how that context has changed over time; and then examined the polarised responses to the G20 as it was elevated in 2008 to heads of government level, and the G20 engagement groups such as Think 20, Business 20 and Youth 20. This paved the way for how the G20 model could operate in the 'sweet spot' of the dilemma between 'effectiveness', and 'legitimacy'.

This innovation dialogue will be followed by the T20 Mid-Term Conference on 30 June-2 July in Rio de Janeiro, where the recommendations will be submitted to the G20 Brazil Sherpa Ambassador Mauricio Lyrio, as input for the ministerial working groups.