Group of 77 and China
The Group of 77 (G77) and China is a coalition of developing countries within the United Nations, established in the early 1960s to advocate for their collective economic interests, particularly in trade. Originally formed by 77 nations, the group has since expanded to 130 members while retaining its historical name. It emerged as a response to the dominance of major global powers during the Cold War, emphasizing solidarity among less influential nations to promote their economic agendas and stabilize commodity prices. The coalition is notable for its diverse membership, reflecting a wide range of cultural and religious backgrounds.
In recent decades, the G77 has expanded its focus to include climate change and its disproportionate effects on developing countries, which often lack the industrial infrastructure contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. The group has been vocal about the challenges posed by global warming, advocating for greater international cooperation and support to address issues such as water management, food security, and the socio-economic impacts of climate-related disasters. The G77 seeks to ensure that the voices and needs of developing nations are integrated into the broader global dialogue on climate action, emphasizing that their economies are particularly vulnerable to these challenges.
Group of 77 and China
Date: Established June 15, 1964
Mission
In the early 1960’s, at the height of the Cold War, the agenda at the United Nations reflected a world divided between East and West. As part of the United Nations mission to offer a forum for the representation of the global community, efforts began as early as 1962 to organize the developing countries of the nonaligned Third World into a coalition within the United Nations. The original protocol for establishing the network of less influential nations was to address questions of trade. The interests of the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and its satellites threatened smaller countries, which demanded relaxed trade barriers and stabilized commodity prices. “Solidarity” was seen as the only way to promote the economic interests of this diverse international community of nations.
The coalition was officially chartered with the Joint Declaration of the Developing Countries in October, 1963, and first convened on June 15, 1964, at the close of the first session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva. Originally, the charter included seventy-seven nations that represented six continents. The group endorsed the central vitality of the United Nations as the forum most appropriate for presenting—and addressing—trade problems. Given the wide range of cultural and religious elements among the group’s membership, the Group of 77 became a paradigm for the mission of the United Nations itself: forging community from diversity.
The first meeting of the Group of 77 was held in Algiers in September, 1967. That assembly adopted a superstructure for the organization, a protocol for annual meetings to be held in conjunction with the opening of the General Assembly in New York. Currently member nations number 130, although the name of the organization was retained for its historical importance. The Republic of China has been recognized as a conditional invitee since 1981. In 1971, a separate chapter-entity, the Group of 24, was established to work specifically on international monetary issues.
Significance for Climate Change
After more than three decades of monitoring the economic development, trade growth, health care, and technological development of developing countries, the Group of 77 in the mid-1990’s shifted its agenda to consider the ramifications of the growing alarming data that projected dire consequences for global climate patterns should the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) fail to be significantly curbed. Global warming accelerated by the burning of oil, gas, and coal—the primary energy resource of the powerful dominant world economies—created a frustrating problem for those less industrial countries. Many of these countries were largely agricultural and most lacked the developed industrial grid that produced GHGs; hence, these countries were not part of the GHG emission problem. Yet, as climatologists began to gather data, it was increasingly clear that impoverished countries would bear the initial brunt of any catastrophic change in the Earth’s climate patterns.
The ambitious and controversial 1997 Kyoto Protocol called for thirty-eight developed countries to reduce fossil fuel emissions by an average of 5.2 percent by 2012. Since that agreement, the Group of 77 has become aggressive in its efforts to represent the impact of global warming on developing countries. Each successive chair of the powerful caucus has endeavored to stress that the economies of developing countries are most vulnerable to the earliest effects of global warming. The Group of 77, in a series of communiqués issued through its agencies, has argued that the strategy proposed by the Kyoto Protocol to help smaller nations—transferring to these nations cutting-edge technology as a way to minimize the production of GHGs from their obsolete facilities—would not sufficiently address the magnitude of the fast-approaching problems.
The Group of 77 pointed out the need for an international water management strategy to handle diminishing water supplies; the need to chart the catastrophic impact of irregular weather patterns (most notably the increase in droughts, heat waves, and cyclones); the need to assess the impact of dropping of sea levels on trade and navigation routes and the economies that rely on them; the need for strategies to handle the sharp increase in food riots in areas stricken by droughts; and the impact on previously stable governments as countries struggle to address these concerns. Given the reluctance of entrenched dominant world economies to reduce fossil fuel emissions, the Group of 77 aggressively pursued its role as agitator, arguing that the crisis of global warming will demand the cooperation of developing nations as the only way to make their interests part of the international dialogue on addressing the crisis.
Bibliography
Aldy, Joseph E., and Robert N. Stavins. Architectures for Agreement: Addressing Global Climate Change in a Post-Kyoto World. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Assesses the relationship between dominant economies and developing countries necessary to address the threat of global warming. Argues the central role of the United Nations in developing a workable framework for enforcing the Kyoto Protocol.
Mingst, Karen A., and Margaret P. Karns. The United Nations in the Twenty-first Century. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2006. Informed analysis of the role of the United Nations in a variety of pressing issues, including global warming.
Northcutt, Michael. A Moral Climate: The Ethics of Global Warming. Phoenix, Ariz.: Orbis, 2007. Fascinating and accessible argument that examines the moral dimension of the conflicting interests of industrialized and developing nations in addressing global warming.
Sauvant, Karl P. Group of 77: Evolution, Structure, Organization. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. Still the most comprehensive and reliable history of the organization’s mission; emphasizes trade inequities and the need for solidarity.