BRICS condemns EU carbon tax
The BRICS grouping issued a joint statement condemning the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), calling it a unilateral, discriminatory and protectionist trade barrier introduced under the pretext of environmental concern.
The statement argued such measures distort competition, disrupt global supply and production chains, and are inconsistent with principles of international trade and climate law.
The bloc called for a significant scale-up in international climate finance to help developing countries adapt to climate change, including doubling adaptation finance from 2019 levels and moving toward higher annual mobilisation targets for the Global South.
The declaration reaffirmed the principle that developed countries bear primary responsibility for financing climate action in developing countries, consistent with historical emissions responsibility.
EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)
CBAM is a carbon tariff instrument through which the European Union prices the carbon content of certain imported goods, to prevent "carbon leakage" — the relocation of carbon-intensive production to countries with weaker climate rules to undercut EU industries facing its internal carbon price (EU Emissions Trading System, EU ETS).
Key Details
- CBAM's transitional phase (reporting-only, no payments) ran from October 2023; the definitive phase, requiring importers to purchase and surrender CBAM certificates for embedded emissions, began 1 January 2026.
- It currently covers six carbon-intensive sectors: iron and steel, cement, fertilizers, aluminium, electricity, and hydrogen.
- Non-compliance attracts a penalty of €100 per tonne of excess (unreported/uncertified) embedded emissions.
- Developing countries, including India, argue CBAM violates the UNFCCC/Paris Agreement principle of "Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities" (CBDR-RC), since it applies a uniform carbon price regardless of a country's development stage or historical emissions.
BRICS's condemnation is a coordinated South-South pushback against CBAM as it enters its financially binding phase in 2026, framing it as a trade barrier rather than a genuine climate measure, since it could disproportionately hit steel, aluminium and fertilizer exports from India, China, Brazil, Russia and South Africa to the EU.
Common But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR-RC) and Climate Finance under UNFCCC
CBDR-RC is a foundational principle of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, 1992) and the Paris Agreement (2015), which recognises that developed countries — having contributed disproportionately to historical greenhouse gas emissions — must take the lead in emission cuts and in financing climate action in developing countries.
Key Details
- Developed countries had committed to jointly mobilise USD 100 billion annually by 2020 (extended through 2025) under the Copenhagen Accord/Cancun Agreements framework.
- At COP29 (Baku, 2024), a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance was adopted, setting a floor of USD 300 billion per year by 2035 from developed countries, with a broader aspirational call to mobilise USD 1.3 trillion annually for developing countries from all sources.
- The BRICS Leaders' Framework Declaration on Climate Finance (adopted at the Rio de Janeiro Summit, July 2025) separately endorsed the COP30 Presidency's goal of mobilising USD 1.3 trillion in climate finance for the Global South.
BRICS's call to "significantly increase" climate adaptation funding builds directly on this NCQG framework, arguing that instruments like CBAM divert developing countries' scarce resources toward compliance costs instead of freeing them up for genuine adaptation and low-carbon transition.
BRICS as a Grouping
BRICS is an intergovernmental grouping of major emerging economies that increasingly coordinates positions on global economic governance, trade and climate finance to represent Global South interests.
Key Details
- The acronym BRIC was coined in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill; the grouping held its first formal summit in 2009 (Yekaterinburg, Russia). South Africa joined in 2010, making it BRICS.
- In a major 2024 expansion (decided at the Johannesburg Summit, August 2023), Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates joined as full members effective 1 January 2024, with Saudi Arabia invited but yet to formally confirm accession.
- The expanded "BRICS+" bloc now represents a significant share of global population and GDP (on a PPP basis), giving it greater collective bargaining weight on issues like trade and climate finance.
The CBAM statement illustrates how the enlarged BRICS grouping is being used as a platform to build a unified Global South negotiating position ahead of binding climate-trade measures, rather than each country responding individually.
- CBAM's definitive, financially binding phase began 1 January 2026; transitional reporting-only phase ran October 2023–end 2025.
- CBAM covers iron & steel, cement, fertilizers, aluminium, electricity and hydrogen; non-compliance penalty is €100/tonne of excess embedded emissions.
- COP29 (Baku, 2024) NCQG: developed countries to mobilise at least USD 300 billion/year by 2035; broader call for USD 1.3 trillion/year from all sources by 2035.
- BRICS expanded to 10 full members from 1 January 2024 (original five plus Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE); Saudi Arabia remains an invitee.
- BRICS's Leaders' Framework Declaration on Climate Finance was adopted at the Rio de Janeiro Summit in July 2025.