BRICS condemns EU carbon tax
The 12th BRICS Environment Ministers' Meeting, held in New Delhi under India's 2026 BRICS Chairship, adopted a joint declaration on carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAMs) such as the European Union's CBAM
The declaration described unilateral carbon border measures as "unilateral, punitive, discriminatory and protectionist"
Member countries flagged that such mechanisms could undermine developing countries' capacity to fund their own climate transitions and divert resources needed for adaptation and sustainable development
The bloc called for a substantial increase in climate finance from developed countries to help developing nations adapt to climate change
The meeting was themed around India's 2026 BRICS Chairship motto "Building Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability" and covered climate adaptation, ecosystem restoration and disaster resilience
EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)
CBAM is a EU trade-and-climate instrument that puts a carbon price on imports of select carbon-intensive goods, aimed at preventing "carbon leakage" (production shifting to countries with laxer climate rules) and equalising the carbon cost between EU-produced and imported goods. Its definitive phase — full financial obligations for importers — began on 1 January 2026, following a transitional reporting-only phase (October 2023–December 2025).
Key Details
- Sectors currently covered: cement, iron and steel, aluminium, fertilisers, electricity, and hydrogen
- Importers must buy CBAM certificates matching the embedded carbon emissions of imported goods, priced in line with the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) carbon price
- First certificate surrender for 2026 imports falls due in September 2027; expansion to more sectors (downstream steel/aluminium goods) proposed from 2028
- India is among the countries most exposed, given steel and aluminium exports to the EU
BRICS members — several of them major exporters of steel, aluminium and fertilisers — argue CBAM functions as a unilateral trade barrier rather than a climate measure, since it shifts compliance costs onto exporting developing countries without corresponding support.
UNFCCC Principle of CBDR-RC
The Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC) principle, enshrined in Article 3 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, 1992), holds that all countries share responsibility for addressing climate change but developed countries — as historical high emitters — bear a greater obligation to lead on emission cuts and finance. BRICS invokes this principle to argue that CBAM ignores differentiated responsibility by imposing a uniform carbon cost regardless of a country's development status.
Key Details
- UNFCCC adopted at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit; near-universal membership (198 parties)
- CBDR-RC is distinct from the Paris Agreement's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) framework, which allows self-differentiated targets
- The WTO's principles of non-discrimination (most-favoured-nation, national treatment) are also invoked by CBAM critics, since unilateral border taxes risk violating multilateral trade rules
The BRICS declaration frames CBAM as contrary to both UNFCCC equity principles and WTO trade norms, positioning it as a case study in the tension between unilateral climate action and multilateral consensus.
Climate Finance Targets: USD 100 Billion to USD 300 Billion Goal
Developed countries committed in 2009 (Copenhagen, COP15) to jointly mobilise USD 100 billion annually by 2020 for developing-country climate action, a target formally extended through 2025. At COP29 (Baku, 2024), parties adopted a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) of USD 300 billion per year by 2035 from developed countries, with a broader ambition of scaling total climate finance flows (public and private, all sources) to USD 1.3 trillion annually by 2035.
Key Details
- USD 100 billion/year goal: pledged 2009, target year 2020, extended to 2025
- COP29 NCQG: USD 300 billion/year by 2035 (developed-country-led), aspirational USD 1.3 trillion/year from all sources
- Climate finance is tracked separately from the Loss and Damage Fund, operationalised at COP28 (2023) for climate-disaster compensation
- India's National Adaptation Fund on Climate Change (NAFCC) and international channels like the Green Climate Fund are examples of adaptation-finance mechanisms developing countries draw on
BRICS' call for "significant increase" in adaptation funding directly references the gap between the COP29 NCQG commitments and what developing countries assess as actual, adequate finance flows — a recurring Mains theme on climate justice and finance architecture.
- 12th BRICS Environment Ministers' Meeting held in New Delhi, August 2026, under India's BRICS Chairship
- BRICS currently has 11 full members: founding five (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) plus Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE (admitted 2024–25)
- EU CBAM definitive phase began 1 January 2026; covers cement, iron and steel, aluminium, fertilisers, electricity, hydrogen
- COP29 (Baku, 2024) set the New Collective Quantified Goal: USD 300 billion/year by 2035 from developed nations
- Original 2009 climate finance pledge: USD 100 billion/year, target year 2020, extended to 2025