Cape Town: The expanding influence of BRICS in the global economy reflects a major transformation towards a more balanced, inclusive and multipolar world order. Against this backdrop, the September Summit in New Delhi could prove decisive in advancing deeper climate cooperation and shaping global resilience to climate change, a report has stated.
For New Delhi, the host of this year’s Summit, the term “Viksit Bharat”, India’s vision of becoming a developed country by 2047, is particularly apt — reflecting an aspiration that the country hopes can extend to all developing nations, according to a report in South African news website ‘The National’.
“Developing countries will gather in New Delhi in September for the 18th edition of the summit, with a key pillar focusing on building resilience in agriculture and in disaster risk reduction. Climate-related risks are ever present in developing economies – severe droughts, floods, heatwaves, and cyclones—that threaten high-exposure infrastructure, food security, and macroeconomic stability, prompting coordinated disaster risk reduction frameworks and local-currency climate financing strategies,” the report detailed.
“BRICS countries are adapting to climate change and introducing green energy as developing countries embrace the solutions for the challenges that will come in the years to come. Climate cooperation is essential to India’s hosting of the summit, with climate experts stressing that the climate agenda is increasingly shifting from discussions about the pace of emissions reductions to practical adaptation measures,” it added.
The report noted that climate cooperation has remained a key focus of previously held BRICS Summits. At the 2015 Summit in Ufa, Russia, member countries expressed their readiness to tackle climate change at both the global and national levels. Additionally, at the 17th Summit in Rio de Janeiro, leaders agreed on key documents, including the BRICS Leaders’ Framework Declaration on Climate Finance and a broader Climate Leadership Agenda.
“Across BRICS nations, a clean energy transition is already full speed ahead, with wind and solar projects outnumbering planned fossil fuel plants. What is missing is a joint financial architecture to match that momentum. India’s BRICS presidency is about a joint financial architecture to match the speed of the transition to clean energy and the opportunity to build it beyond declaration and toward delivery,” The National mentioned.
According to the report, India as BRICS chair could accelerate the implementation of three specific mechanisms.
“First, BRICS can amplify the reach of Project Bridge, the blockchain-enabled multi-CBDC platform developed by BRICS’ central banks, as a settlement layer for climate finance transactions, reducing dollar intermediation and transaction costs for cross-border green investment within the bloc. Second, India can push a formal framework for strategically utilising Gulf Sovereign Wealth Fund co-investment in NDB climate projects,” the report highlighted
“Third, accelerate the rupee bond program across BRICS currencies, leveraging India’s expertise in building large-scale, low-cost digital public infrastructure (DPI) frameworks,” it stressed.
(IANS)
