RIYADH — The King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC), in partnership with the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS), concluded on Tuesday, the T20 Summit Season which consisted of 11 webinars and gathered experts from around the world.

The T20 Summit Season aiming to produce recommendations in the field of economic development, climate change, women and youth, technology and innovation, multilateralism, financing, food security, access to water and the methods of solving complex problems, in order to be considered by the leaders of G20 member countries during the coming summit in November.

The policy briefs were developed by the T20’s task force teams in collaboration with the group of local and international experts and specialists, and a number of civil society organizations, aiming to shape the future of prosperity, sustainability, and inclusion around the world.

"The efforts of the 11 task forces proved that we have national talents, minds and research centers that are able to compete globally. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the T20 team was able to successfully complete the road map and make the necessary recommendations to address the future challenges of the G20 leaders," T20 Sherpa, Hossa Almutairi said.

Al-Mutairi also demonstrated that the most important recommendations made by the T20 task forces were to enhance the circular carbon economy, support empowerment and economic equality for women and youth, promote social cohesion through innovative policies and programs, improve the ability of the G20 to implement and monitor the 2030 sustainable development plan adopted by the United Nations, in addition to security and sustainability. Agriculture, food sources and distribution networks, and the importance of global solidarity and multilateralism in response to the COVID-19 crisis and future shocks.

The T20 Deputy Sherpa, Dr. Turki Alshuwaier, elaborated that the COVID-19 made a huge shift in the G20’s engagement groups meeting, and Saudi Arabia was able to deal with the pandemic with the flexibility and competence necessary to complete the group's work despite the crisis, which made there a lot of lessons learned we would be able to provide the countries that will hold the presidency of the G20 in the future.

Think 20 (T20) includes 11 task forces. The T20 task forces are; trade, investment and growth, climate change and the environment, infrastructure investment and financing, social cohesion and the state, the future of multilateralism and global governance, economy, education and employment in the digital age, G20 support for SDGs and development cooperation, International Financial Architecture, in addition to migration and young societies, sustainable energy, water and food systems and COVID-19 multidisciplinary approaches to complex problems.

The Think20 (T20) is the research and policy advice network of the Group of 20 (G20). T20 is an international network of research institutes and think tanks that contributes solutions to global problems through evidence-based research. Almost 150 policy briefs from more than 650 authors were received, which is considered the highest number of researchers participating in a think tank engagement group, compared with the previous G20 summits, as the number of researchers participating reached only 80 in Argentina and 134 in Japan. — SG