BRICS ministers link energy access to climate finance as India pushes storage and mineral cooperation
The BRICS Environment Ministers' Meeting was held in New Delhi under India's 2026 BRICS chairship, bringing together environment ministers of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (plus newer members).
The grouping adopted a joint statement built around four priorities — sustainable lifestyles, forest management, circular economy and climate adaptation — and called for greater international cooperation on energy access, environmentally sound technologies, concessional finance and technology transfer.
Ministers urged developed countries to honour commitments to scale up adaptation finance for developing nations and flagged concerns over unilateral trade measures such as carbon border taxes affecting developing-country exporters.
Separately, India's domestic energy storage industry, represented by an industry association, submitted recommendations to deepen BRICS-level cooperation on battery storage, critical mineral security, harmonised testing standards and joint pilot projects, citing India's fast-growing but import-dependent storage sector.
BRICS: Origin, Expansion and India's 2026 Chairship
BRICS began as "BRIC" — a term coined in a 2001 Goldman Sachs report — and became a formal grouping with the first summit in 2009 (Yekaterinburg, Russia); South Africa joined in 2010, making it BRICS. In January 2024, the bloc expanded to admit Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE (Argentina declined), and Indonesia joined as a full member in 2025. India holds the BRICS chairship for 2026 — its fourth time hosting the presidency — under the theme "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability."
Key Details
- Founding members: Brazil, Russia, India, China (2009); South Africa added 2010.
- 2024 expansion added Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE; Indonesia joined 2025.
- India chairs BRICS in 2026 for the fourth time; New Delhi hosted the Foreign Ministers' Meeting in May 2026.
- BRICS operates by consensus; there is no permanent secretariat, unlike the WTO or UN bodies.
The Environment Ministers' Meeting is one of the sectoral tracks under India's 2026 chairship calendar, and its emphasis on energy access, climate finance and technology transfer reflects India's stated chairship priorities of economic resilience and sustainable development.
New Development Bank (NDB) and BRICS Financial Architecture
The NDB (originally "BRICS Bank") was established in 2015 by the five founding BRICS members to mobilise resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging economies, positioned as an alternative to Bretton Woods institutions like the World Bank and IMF. It is headquartered in Shanghai, with a regional office in India (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, Gandhinagar). Capital is shared equally among founding members and each founding member holds one vote, with no member holding veto power — a structural contrast to IMF/World Bank voting-share models.
Key Details
- Established 2015; headquartered in Shanghai; India regional office in GIFT City, Gandhinagar.
- Membership has expanded beyond the original five to include Bangladesh, Egypt, UAE, and others.
- Equal capital contribution and one-vote-per-founding-member structure, unlike IMF/World Bank.
Climate finance and technology-transfer asks raised by BRICS environment ministers are typically channelled through such South-South financial mechanisms as an alternative to relying solely on developed-country climate funds.
Climate Adaptation Finance: The Baku (COP29) Commitment
At COP29 (Baku, 2024), parties adopted the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance, under which developed countries agreed to lead efforts to raise climate finance for developing countries to at least USD 300 billion annually by 2035 (up from the earlier USD 100 billion/year goal set at COP15/Copenhagen and reaffirmed through 2025), with a broader ambition of mobilising USD 1.3 trillion/year from all public and private sources by 2035. This built on an earlier Glasgow (COP26, 2021) pledge to at least double adaptation finance by 2025 from 2019 levels. [Note: exact scaling of "tripling adaptation finance by 2035" as referenced in the ministers' statement is consistent with the Baku Adaptation Roadmap discussions following COP29, but the precise adaptation-specific sub-target figure is [Unverified].]
Key Details
- NCQG (COP29, Baku, 2024): developed countries to lead mobilisation of USD 300 bn/year by 2035 for developing countries.
- Broader multi-source finance goal: USD 1.3 trillion/year by 2035.
- Predecessor goal: USD 100 bn/year, set at COP15 (2009), operationalised from 2020.
BRICS ministers' call for developed nations to fulfil adaptation finance commitments through grant-based, concessional channels directly references the post-COP29 climate finance architecture, which developing-country blocs like BRICS see as insufficiently ambitious.
Critical Minerals and Battery Storage Supply Chains
Critical minerals (lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earths, graphite) are inputs essential to clean-energy technologies — batteries, EVs, solar cells, wind turbines — but are geographically concentrated in supply and processing, creating strategic vulnerability. India released a Critical Minerals Mission and a list of 30 critical minerals (2023) to guide domestic exploration, recycling and overseas acquisition, given heavy import dependence for battery-grade materials.
Key Details
- India notified a list of 30 critical minerals in 2023 (Ministry of Mines).
- National Critical Mineral Mission approved by Union Cabinet (January 2025) to boost domestic exploration, processing and recycling.
- India's energy storage project pipeline has crossed roughly 100 GW, with about 10 GW operational, per industry estimates.
The domestic storage industry's push for BRICS-level cooperation on critical minerals and harmonised standards is aimed at diversifying supply chains away from single-source dependence and building resilient battery manufacturing capacity.
- BRICS Environment Ministers' Meeting held in New Delhi under India's 2026 chairship (India's fourth time chairing BRICS).
- BRICS grouping: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, plus Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE (2024) and Indonesia (2025).
- COP29 (Baku) NCQG: developed countries to mobilise USD 300 billion/year by 2035 for developing nations; broader USD 1.3 trillion/year multi-source goal.
- New Development Bank established 2015, headquartered in Shanghai, regional office in GIFT City, India.
- India's energy storage pipeline exceeds 100 GW, with roughly 10 GW operational (industry estimate).
- India notified 30 critical minerals (2023); National Critical Mineral Mission approved January 2025.