• The 10th Meeting of BRICS Environment Ministers was held in hybrid format under the Chairship of the Russian Federation.

• Union Minister of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav participated virtually in the meeting.   

• It was the first meeting of the BRICS Environment Ministers after joining of  five new members — Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Highlights of the meeting

• The Union Minister stated that a larger and bigger BRICS can now set the agenda, priorities and way forward for tackling environmental challenges. 

• Bhupender Yadav stressed that initiatives under BRICS are firmly guided by the principles and goals of the UN system and its agencies, and BRICS nations should ensure that available carbon space is utilised by the Developing Countries.

• He urged the BRICS nations to join and support the campaign of ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’, launched by Prime Minister on World Environment Day, 2024, and global initiatives led by India, such as Mission LiFE, IBCA, CDRI, LeadIT, Green Credit Initiative, RE & CE-IC, and GIR-GIP.

The BRICS nations

• The BRICS nations or Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa form the key pillars of south-south cooperation and are the representative voice of emerging markets and developing countries in the global forums such as the G20.

• The grouping has become a 10-nation body now with Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates joining it as new members.

• With the new states joining, the bloc now accounts for 37.3 per cent of the world’s GDP. 

• The acronym BRIC was first used in 2001 by Goldman Sachs in their Global Economics Paper, ‘The World Needs Better Economic BRICs’ on the basis of econometric analyses projecting that the four economies would individually and collectively occupy far greater economic space and would be amongst the world’s largest economies in the next 50 years or so.

• The leaders of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries met for the first time in St. Petersburg, Russia, on the margins of the G8 Outreach Summit in July 2006. Shortly afterwards, in September 2006, the group was formalised as BRIC during the First BRIC Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, which met on the sidelines of the General Debate of the UN Assembly in New York City.

• After a series of high level meetings, the first BRIC summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia on June 16, 2009.

• It was agreed to expand BRIC into BRICS with the inclusion of South Africa at the BRIC Foreign Ministers meeting in New York in September 2010. Accordingly, South Africa attended the third BRICS Summit in Sanya on April 14, 2011. 

• In 2014, the BRICS nations established the New Development Bank (NDB). It has an initial authorised capital of $100 billion and initial subscribed capital of $50 billion of which $10 billion is paid-in capital.

Expansion of BRICS

• BRICS leaders have left the door open to future enlargement as dozens more countries voiced interest in joining a grouping.

• Around 40 countries had shown interest in joining BRICS out of which 23 formally applied for the membership.

• In August 2023, the top BRICS leaders at the grouping’s summit in Johannesburg approved a proposal to admit six countries, including Argentina, into the bloc with effect from January 1. However, Argentina’s President Javier Milei announced withdrawing his country from becoming a member of the BRICS.

• The decision to expand the bloc is seen as an effort to reshape global governance while putting the voices of the Global South as a key priority area to advance the overall development agenda.

• Russia assumed the presidency of BRICS on January 1, 2024.

• Russia’s presidency features more than 250 various events, with a BRICS summit in Kazan in October 2024 being the central one.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)