BRICS is working for a future that puts the planet first

Why in the News

India hosted the 12th BRICS Environment Ministers' Meeting on 18 August 2026 in New Delhi under its chairship of the grouping. The tension it exposes is that a bloc holding roughly 40 percent of global gross domestic product continues to argue for differentiated responsibility in climate action, while the outcomes it produces are principles and knowledge platforms rather than binding obligations.

What is BRICS and what weight does it carry?

1. What it is: BRICS is an intergovernmental grouping of major emerging economies, founded around Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, that coordinates positions on economic governance, development and multilateral reform.
2. Demographic weight: BRICS countries account for 49.5 percent of the world's population.
3. Economic weight: They account for approximately 40 percent of global gross domestic product.
4. Trade weight: They account for 26 percent of international trade, which together with the population and output figures underscores their growing influence on the global economy, the development agenda and the future direction of international cooperation.

What is the BRICS Environment Working Group?

1. What it is: The BRICS Environment Working Group is the technical body under which member countries negotiate environmental cooperation and prepare the outcomes adopted at the Environment Ministers' Meeting.
2. Its function this cycle: Under India's chairship it organised its work around four interconnected priorities, which formed the substantive agenda of the 12th Environment Ministers' Meeting.

What is Mission LiFE?

1. What it is: Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) is an Indian initiative that seeks to shift climate action from state and market levers to individual and community behaviour, treating consumption choices as a mitigation instrument.
2. Its role at BRICS: The BRICS priority on Promoting Sustainable Lifestyles builds directly on the principles of Mission LiFE.

What is Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam?

1. What it is: Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam, meaning a tree in the name of mother, is a national tree plantation campaign that ties ecological restoration to individual participation.
2. What it demonstrates: Together with Mission LiFE it demonstrates the value of combining ecological restoration, public participation and community ownership.

What were the four priorities of the BRICS Environment Working Group under India's chairship?

1. Promoting Sustainable Lifestyles: Builds on the principles of Mission LiFE and encourages responsible and sustainable consumption and production, behavioural change, awareness among citizens and communities, and knowledge-sharing.
2. Afforestation, Forest Fire Management and Disaster Resilience: Addresses growing pressures on forests, land and natural ecosystems through integrated landscape restoration, combating land degradation, wildfire preparedness and response, early-warning systems and ecosystem resilience, using scientific advances such as remote sensing and artificial intelligence.
3. Circular Economy: Reflects the recognition that the traditional take, make and dispose model is no longer sustainable, and treats the circular economy as a key enabler of sustainable development and inclusive growth that reduces environmental pressures while creating economic opportunities and green employment through cooperation in research, innovation, technology transfer and capacity building.
4. Adaptation: Responds to intensifying climate impacts and the disproportionate vulnerabilities of developing countries, and recognises that traditional, indigenous and local knowledge systems offer valuable insights for building resilience.

What are the BRICS Principles for Advancing Climate Resilience through People-Centric and Community-Based Adaptation?

1. What they are: A set of principles adopted under the BRICS adaptation priority that place communities rather than agencies at the centre of adaptation planning.
2. The core method: They emphasise integrating traditional, indigenous and local knowledge with modern science and technology.
3. The stated objective: The integration is intended to create context-specific, evidence-based and culturally appropriate adaptation solutions.
4. Why the framing matters: Adaptation has become an urgent necessity particularly for developing countries facing disproportionate vulnerabilities, which is the constituency these principles are written for.

What outcomes did India's chairship produce beyond declarations?

1. Practical principles: The outcomes include the development of practical principles on sustainable lifestyles, integrated landscape management, forest fire preparedness and community-based adaptation.
2. Technical products: They include technical reports, platforms, dialogues and knowledge-sharing networks rather than declaratory text alone.
3. The process behind them: These outcomes reflect months of collaboration, negotiation and consensus-building among member countries.
4. The claimed significance: They are presented as demonstrating the value of multilateral cooperation in addressing common environmental challenges at a time when multilateral processes are under strain.
5. The stated guiding vision: India's chairship was guided by the stated aim of advancing the forum with a people-centric approach and the spirit of Humanity First, extending the inclusivity and Global South focus of India's G20 presidency.

What does India's own record contribute to the BRICS position?

1. Emissions intensity: India reduced the emissions intensity of its economy by 37.38 percent between 2005 and 2022.
2. Non-fossil capacity: Non-fossil sources accounted for 54.18 percent of installed electricity capacity as of 30 June 2026.
3. The forward commitment: India's new Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) for 2031 to 2035, the national climate pledge submitted under the Paris Agreement, reflects a commitment to advancing climate action while supporting inclusive development and energy security.
4. The argument these figures serve: India's efforts to reduce emissions intensity while expanding non-fossil energy capacity reinforce the position that development and environmental responsibility can advance together.
5. The domestic template exported: Mission LiFE and Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam illustrate how climate action, biodiversity conservation, resilience-building and livelihood enhancement can reinforce one another when pursued through integrated approaches.

Why does a bloc of this economic weight still argue for differentiated responsibility?

1. The principle asserted: The principles of equity and Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC) resonated across the meeting and remain fundamental to an effective and balanced global response to climate change.
2. The basis of the claim: The principle rests on historical contribution to the accumulated stock of emissions and on current capability, not on present output share alone.
3. The vulnerability argument: Adaptation is an urgent necessity particularly for developing countries facing disproportionate vulnerabilities, which is a burden the bloc's economic weight does not offset.
4. The counter-pressure implicit in the figures: A grouping holding about 40 percent of global gross domestic product and 26 percent of international trade is difficult to present as a category requiring differentiated treatment on capability grounds.
5. The bloc's own answer: Environmental action must be people-centric, implementation-oriented and responsive to the realities of developing countries, which shifts the test from aggregate output to conditions on the ground.
6. The concession in the argument: Success will ultimately be measured not by the adoption of principles alone but by their ability to strengthen ecosystems, support livelihoods and build a more resilient future, which acknowledges that principles alone settle nothing.

Conclusion

The 12th BRICS Environment Ministers' Meeting in New Delhi on 18 August 2026 organised the bloc's environmental agenda around sustainable lifestyles, afforestation and disaster resilience, the circular economy and community-based adaptation, and adopted principles on people-centric adaptation grounded in equity and Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities. India brought to that table an emissions intensity reduction of 37.38 percent between 2005 and 2022, non-fossil sources at 54.18 percent of installed electricity capacity as of 30 June 2026, and a new Nationally Determined Contribution for 2031 to 2035. What remains unresolved is the conversion of adopted principles into strengthened ecosystems and supported livelihoods, which is the test the chairship has itself named.

What is Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities?

Source: Backgrounder, CoP UNFCCC.docx

1. About: Common but Differentiated Responsibilities holds that all countries share the climate problem but that their obligations differ based on historical contributions to emissions and on current capability to act.
2. Rationale: It exists to reconcile the universal character of the climate problem with the unequal responsibility for causing it and the unequal means available to address it.
3. Where it was codified: It was embedded at the Rio Earth Summit of 1992 as the legal foundation of the climate regime and appears among the 27 principles of the Rio Declaration alongside the precautionary and polluter-pays principles.
4. Annex I: Members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development as of 1992 plus economies in transition, required to adopt national policies to limit greenhouse gas emissions and protect sinks.
5. Annex II: A subset of Annex I comprising only the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development members, required to provide financial resources to developing countries and facilitate technology transfer.
6. Non-Annex I: Developing countries, carrying no binding emission targets under the original architecture.
7. Least Developed Countries: A separate category given special consideration in view of limited capacity to respond to climate change.
8. How Paris altered it: The Paris Agreement of 2015 replaced the firewall with a universal Nationally Determined Contribution system, common in framework but flexible in commitment, so differentiation survives through national determination rather than through separate annexes.

Key Concerns Regarding Common but Differentiated Responsibilities

1. The firewall's eroding legitimacy: As emerging economies became major annual emitters, the moral case for zero binding obligations on the non-Annex I side became the central contested question in climate diplomacy.
2. Unmet finance obligations: The differentiated bargain rests on developed country finance that has repeatedly fallen short, and the 100 billion dollar per year pledge made at Copenhagen in 2009 became the most discussed unmet promise in the regime.
3. Counting private finance as public obligation: Developed countries have sought to count private flows towards the finance goal, which India has objected to on the ground that private finance does not reach the most vulnerable countries and comes at commercial rather than concessional rates.
4. Asymmetric transparency demands: Verification pressure has historically been applied to developing country mitigation rather than to developed country finance and technology transfer, which was the core of the standoff at Bali in 2007.
5. No substantive obligation under the Paris system: Nationally Determined Contributions carry no international legal obligation on the substance of the target, so differentiation coexists with collectively insufficient ambition.
6. Trade measures bypassing the principle: Unilateral trade instruments applied at the border shift the burden regardless of differentiated status, and India has treated the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism as incompatible with the principle.

The Global Climate Governance Architecture

Source: Backgrounder, CoP UNFCCC.docx

1. Stockholm, 1972: The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment established the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the first global intergovernmental platform for the environment, headquartered in Nairobi, and adopted the Stockholm Declaration of 26 non-binding principles.
2. Rio Earth Summit, 1992: Produced three legally binding treaties in one conference, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), together called the Rio Trio, and codified Common but Differentiated Responsibilities as the foundational legal principle.
3. Kyoto Protocol, 1997: The first legally binding instrument under the Framework Convention, requiring Annex I countries to cut emissions by an average of about 5 percent during 2008 to 2012, and creating three market mechanisms, the Clean Development Mechanism, Joint Implementation and Emissions Trading.
4. Copenhagen, 2009: Recognised the 2 degrees Celsius limit for the first time and produced the first quantified climate finance goal of 100 billion dollars per year by 2020, negotiated by the BASIC group of Brazil, South Africa, India and China with the United States outside the formal process.
5. Paris Agreement, 2015: Established the universal Nationally Determined Contribution system with submissions every five years and a no-backsliding progression rule, alongside Article 6 carbon markets, Article 9 finance obligations, the Enhanced Transparency Framework and the five-yearly Global Stocktake.
6. Glasgow, 2021: Locked in the Article 6.2 and 6.4 rulebook including corresponding adjustments, and was where India announced its Panchamrit targets.
7. Baku, 2024: Agreed the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) of at least 300 billion dollars per year by 2035 from developed countries, with a broader aspirational goal of 1.3 trillion dollars per year from all sources.
8. Belem, 2025: Adopted the Belem Political Package and the Global Mutirao declaration, agreed 59 Belem Adaptation Indicators under the United Arab Emirates Framework for Global Climate Resilience, established a Just Transition Mechanism, and was the deadline for third-generation Nationally Determined Contributions to 2035.
9. The forward calendar: COP31 is to be held in Antalya, Turkiye in November 2026 and COP32 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2027.

India's Standing Climate Targets

Source: Backgrounder, CoP UNFCCC.docx

1. Panchamrit, announced at Glasgow in 2021: Five commitments, namely 500 GW non-fossil energy capacity by 2030, 50 percent of energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030, reduction of projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2030, reduction of the carbon intensity of the economy by 45 percent by 2030 over 2005 levels, and net zero emissions by 2070.
2. The 2022 Nationally Determined Contribution update: India upgraded its emissions intensity target to 45 percent by 2030 from the 33 to 35 percent pledged at Paris, and its non-fossil installed capacity target to 50 percent by 2030 from 40 percent.
3. Ratification record: India signed the Paris Agreement on 22 April 2016 and ratified it on 2 October 2016, among the earliest major economies to do so.
4. Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy: A qualitative roadmap reaffirming net zero by 2070, grounded in climate justice and Common but Differentiated Responsibilities, spanning seven transitions across electricity, transport, industry, urban planning, forests, carbon removal and finance.
5. Greenhouse Gases Emission Intensity Target Rules, 2025: Legally binding emission intensity targets notified for over 400 industrial units, covering aluminium, cement, chlor-alkali and pulp and paper initially, with iron and steel, fertiliser, petroleum refining, petrochemicals and textiles to follow, enforced through the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme, 2023.
6. Article 6 National Designated Authority: A 21-member committee headed by the Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, authorises projects under Article 6.4, with renewable energy, green hydrogen, green ammonia and carbon capture, utilisation and storage as eligible activities.

Key Facts about BRICS

1. The name: The acronym originated as BRIC for Brazil, Russia, India and China, with South Africa joining in 2010 to make BRICS.
2. First summit: The first BRIC leaders' summit was held at Yekaterinburg in Russia in 2009.
3. Expansion: Membership was expanded from 2024 to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, with Indonesia joining in 2025.
4. New Development Bank: Established under the 2014 Fortaleza Agreement and headquartered in Shanghai, it finances infrastructure and sustainable development projects in member and other developing countries.
5. Contingent Reserve Arrangement: A currency swap framework agreed at Fortaleza in 2014 to provide members with short-term liquidity support against balance of payments pressure.
6. Chairship: The chairship rotates annually among members, and India chairs the grouping for the current cycle.
7. The environment track: The Environment Ministers' Meeting is the sectoral ministerial under which the BRICS Environment Working Group's outcomes are adopted, and the 12th meeting was held in New Delhi on 18 August 2026.

Back2Basics: The New Development Bank

1. What it is: The New Development Bank is a multilateral development bank established by the BRICS countries to mobilise resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects.
2. Founding instrument: It was established under the Agreement on the New Development Bank signed at the Fortaleza Summit in Brazil in 2014 and began operations in 2015.
3. Headquarters: Shanghai, China, with regional offices including one in Johannesburg, South Africa.
4. Capital structure: It was founded with equal shareholding among the five founding members, which distinguishes it from the weighted voting of the Bretton Woods institutions.
5. Membership expansion: It has admitted non-founding members including Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Algeria.
6. Mandate: It lends for infrastructure and sustainable development, with a significant share of its portfolio in clean energy, transport, water and sanitation, and urban development.
7. India's position: India is a founding member and among the largest recipients of New Development Bank lending.

Challenges to BRICS Environmental Cooperation

1. Outcomes without binding force: The chairship's outputs are principles, technical reports and knowledge networks rather than enforceable commitments, e.g. the BRICS Principles on people-centric adaptation carry no compliance mechanism.
2. Divergent member emission profiles: The bloc contains both the world's largest annual emitter and states with very low per capita emissions, which makes a single position difficult, e.g. China's annual emissions are several times India's while both invoke the same differentiated status.
3. Fossil fuel dependence within the bloc: Several members are major hydrocarbon producers or exporters, which limits how far the grouping can go on transition language, e.g. Russia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates are among the world's leading oil and gas exporters.
4. Finance gap unaddressed: The bloc restates the equity claim without an internal financing instrument for adaptation, e.g. adaptation finance for vulnerable members still depends on the contested developed country pledges under the Framework Convention.
5. Unilateral trade measures bypassing the framework: Border carbon measures shift the burden regardless of differentiated status, e.g. the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism covers steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen, and India has raised it as a trade barrier at the World Trade Organization.
6. Bilateral frictions inside the grouping: Political disputes between members limit the depth of cooperation, e.g. unresolved boundary questions between two of the founding members constrain joint implementation.
7. Institutional thinness: The grouping has no permanent secretariat, so continuity depends on the annual chair, e.g. priorities set under one chairship are not guaranteed carry-forward under the next.
8. Weak measurement of implementation: Success is asserted through outputs rather than measured through outcomes, e.g. sustainable lifestyle and afforestation priorities carry no agreed indicator set comparable to the Belem Adaptation Indicators.

Way Forward

1. Convert principles into indicator sets: Attach measurable indicators and reporting timelines to each of the four priorities, so that the sustainable lifestyles, afforestation, circular economy and adaptation tracks can be assessed rather than asserted.
2. Create a BRICS adaptation finance window: Use the New Development Bank to establish a dedicated adaptation and resilience lending facility, so the equity argument is backed by an internal instrument and not only by claims on developed country finance.
3. Institutionalise the Environment Working Group: Give the working group a standing technical secretariat function, so priorities survive the annual rotation of the chairship.
4. Build a shared technology transfer platform: Operationalise cooperation in research, innovation, technology transfer and capacity building for the circular economy through a common platform rather than through bilateral arrangements.
5. Coordinate a joint response to border carbon measures: Present a common BRICS position at the World Trade Organization on unilateral trade instruments that bypass Common but Differentiated Responsibilities.
6. Scale the community-based adaptation model: Convert the BRICS Principles on people-centric adaptation into pilot programmes with member country funding, integrating traditional and indigenous knowledge with remote sensing and artificial intelligence tools.
7. Sustain the domestic template: Continue Mission LiFE and Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam as demonstrable models of behaviour-led and participation-led action that other members can adapt, so the chairship leaves a replicable method behind.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2021, GS3, 10 marks] Explain the purpose of the Green Grid Initiative launched at the World Leaders Summit of the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in November 2021. When was this idea first floated in the International Solar Alliance (ISA)?”

# Compiled Articles, 20 August 2026 (Part 6, Items 31 to 36)