Unions have questioned whether the G20's economic growth targets can be met, while environmental groups have welcomed the attention the summit has focused on climate change.
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The Labour 20, which brings together leaders on international organised labour, said the 2 per cent extra economic growth target heralded as the major outcome of the Brisbane summit would struggle to be met because it had not been accompanied by a plan to stimulate demand through higher wages and quality job creation.
The general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, Sharan Burrow, said projections which suggested the 2 per cent target would be met were based on unrealistic economic modelling which assumed full employment.
"We have no confidence that on current economic modelling the 2 per cent growth target can be achieved," Ms Burrow said.
"With the huge unemployment crisis, and no plans to address demand needed to stimulate the global economy, the G20 will be back next year with higher unemployment and more fractured societies."
In contrast, Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott said the meeting had "reset the international growth agenda with sensible policies that could be applied both collectively and within individual nations".
"The agenda is about much more than setting a nominal growth target. It is focused on maintaining global standards of living for some countries, and improving standards for others," she said.
"Business leaders, including a number of our CEO members, are proud to have made a contribution to this practical and visionary agenda."
World Bank Group president Jim Yong Kim welcomed the leaders' commitment to jobs and growth.
"Higher and more inclusive growth is essential if we are to significantly cut poverty and reduce inequality," Dr Kim said.
"The G20 commitments promise a much-needed boost to G20 countries and beyond."
Dr Kim said the G20 leaders had rightly identified investment in infrastructure as crucial to lifting growth, welcoming the launch of the G20 Global Infrastructure Initiative and Hub, which he said would complement the work of the World Bank Group's Infrastructure Facility.
Dr Kim also welcomed the G20 leaders' support for strong and effective action to address climate change.
The Climate Institute chief executive John Connor said the summit and its surrounding events had placed a spotlight on the urgency of acting on climate change.
"It is refreshing and encouraging that world leaders are highly concerned and keen to emphasise the need to address climate change, especially in the context of economic growth and other key global issues," Mr Connor said.
"If the Australian public and the Australian government was in any doubt about the importance that other leaders and other countries put on this issue, then they shouldn't be in any now."
The G20 communique encourages countries to announce their post 2020 emissions reductions targets in the next couple of months as the world prepares to negotiate the next global agreement in Paris in December 2015.
"Australia should work within that timeframe," Mr Connor said.
Oxfam Australia chief executive Helen Szoke welcomed the G20's commitment to cracking down on tax dodging by multinational companies, but warned "what's on the table currently is not enough to stop poor countries being bled dry".
Dr Szoke described the summit's response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa as "hugely disappointing."
"G20 leaders have recognised the short and long-term consequences of Ebola, but they have not made new commitments to deal with the crisis. This means there is a real risk that the UN's December 1 target for turning the tide on Ebola will not be met," she said.
