Joint Statement of the BRICS High-level Meeting on Climate Change
1. The BRICS High-level Meeting on Climate Change was held by video on 13 May 2022. Meeting shall be presided over by the ecological environment minister Dr. Huang of the People's Republic of China, China's special envoy for climate change, xie zhenhua, vice minister of the ecological environment of the People's Republic of China Zhao Yingmin, if environment minister Kim Wright of the federative republic of Brazil, the Russian federation, natural resources and ecology, vice minister sergei Arnold in years, Bhupandar Yadav, Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and Minister of Labour and Employment of the Republic of India, and Barbara Chrissy, Minister of Forests, Fisheries and Environment of the Republic of South Africa attended the meeting.
2. The world, in particular developing countries, is struggling to recover from multiple challenges, including COVID-19, the economic crisis and efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The BRICS High-level Meeting on Climate Change aims to jointly address climate change and explore ways to accelerate the transition to low carbon and climate resilience and achieve sustainable, balanced and inclusive recovery and development.
3. We commemorate the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and reaffirm the commitment of all parties to the objectives, principles and institutional framework of the UnfCCC and its Paris Agreement. We recall that the adoption of the Convention 30 years ago symbolized the international community's full recognition of the adverse impacts of climate change on nature and mankind, and the commitment of the Parties to take action to respond positively within the consensus, framework and principles jointly established. We reaffirm the unCLOS and its Paris Agreement as the basic legal framework and main channel for international cooperation on climate change, and commit ourselves to promoting their full and effective implementation.
4. We reaffirm that multilateralism is an important approach to addressing global challenges such as climate change. All parties should adhere to multilateralism and focus on concrete climate action. We called on countries to adhere to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities principles such as the convention and the principles of the Paris agreement, consider different national conditions, on the basis of the existing consensus, in accordance with the system arrangement, decide the contribution by the state to enhance mutual trust and strengthen cooperation, accurate, balanced and full implementation of the convention and the Paris agreement. Developing countries need to be supported with implementation tools to do their best.
5. We attach great importance to addressing climate change and stress that brics countries have played an active leading role in the multilateral process on climate change and contributed significantly to global low-carbon, climate resilience and sustainable development. We recognize that in the context of a recovering world economy and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, including poverty eradication, developing countries face more difficulties and challenges in achieving global carbon neutrality. In light of our respective national conditions and capabilities, we have put forward our nationally determined contributions that reflect the highest ambitions, and taken ambitious actions to address climate change within the framework of sustainable development, which have yielded notable results.
6. China has been implementing an active national strategy on climate change. On the basis of overfulfilling the 2020 climate action target promised to the international community, China has further put forward the vision of peaking carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, striving to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, and a series of new measures to enhance the strength of its nationally determined contribution. By 2021, China's energy consumption intensity per unit OF GDP had fallen by 26.2 percent from 2012, the installed capacity of renewable energy had exceeded 1 billion kilowatts, and China accounted for one quarter of the world's new green area.
China has submitted an updated Nationally determined Contribution and long-term low greenhouse Gas emission development strategy, set up a leading group for peak Carbon Neutrality, completed the top-level design of peak carbon neutrality, and basically established a "1+N" policy system for peak carbon neutrality. China is planning to build 450 million kilowatts of large-scale wind power photovoltaic bases. We will actively promote the development of a national carbon market, vigorously support the green and low-carbon energy development of developing countries, and refrain from building overseas coal power projects. China has put forward a global development Initiative aimed at accelerating the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with climate change and green development as one of the eight priority areas for cooperation.
7. Brazil is committed to combating the adverse effects of climate change. At the Convention's 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26), Brazil upped its mitigation ambitions with a new goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. Brazil has announced strategic measures to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, including zero illegal deforestation by 2028, the restoration and reforestation of 18 million hectares by 2030, and encouraging the expansion of the national railway network. Brazil has also joined the Global Methane Agreement and recently announced a National Plan to Reduce Methane emissions - Zero Methane, which will work to create economic resources by reducing methane emissions. Brazil has decisively concluded negotiations on the details of the Implementation of the Paris Agreement, looking to the carbon market to mobilize more resources and further enhance the global ambition to combat climate change.
8. Russia firmly adhered to the principles of the Convention and the Paris Agreement and remained committed to the objectives established therein. Russia has announced it will be carbon neutral by 2060. Russia is working on a deep restructuring of its industrial and energy sectors, with 45% of its energy balance benefiting from low-emission energy sources such as nuclear power generation. Russia plans to increase the use of associated gas and implement large-scale ecological modernization and energy efficiency projects in all sectors of the economy. Russia is building infrastructure to produce hydrogen and use it as a raw material and energy carrier. Russia recognizes that one of the main objectives is to improve its capacity to adapt to climate change and stresses that climate change will affect everyone regardless of the political environment. Russia will hold an international conference in St Petersburg in July 2022 and invite BRICS partners to attend.
9. India is committed to strong climate action, including the promotion of sustainable lifestyles based on rational consumption and the reduction of waste. India has initiated cross-cutting policies across several key economic sectors such as energy, transport and industry, and has achieved outstanding results in achieving and even exceeding its initial NATIONALLY determined contributions under the Paris Agreement. Emissions intensity per unit of GDP is 24% below 2005 levels, indicating that India's economic growth and emissions have gradually decoupled. India's installed power generation capacity from non-fossil fuels has reached 159 million kw, reaching 40% of its cumulative installed capacity from non-fossil fuels set out in its Nationally determined contribution eight years ahead of schedule.
Subsequently, India announced enhanced climate commitments, including 50 per cent non-fossil power generation capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030, a 45 per cent reduction in the carbon intensity of the economy and a goal of net zero emissions by 2070.
At the same time, India has also launched its National Hydrogen Mission, which uses green energy to produce hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels. India is also pushing ahead with an ambitious biofuels programme that aims to increase ethanol blending in petrol to 20 per cent by 2025-26 and biodiesel to 5 per cent in diesel by 2030. India's forest and tree cover is steadily increasing and has reached 24.62%. India has added 23 new ramsar sites in the past three years and now has the largest ramsar network in South Asia. This reflects India's strong efforts to strengthen an ecosystem-based approach to climate change.
In addition to ambitious domestic mitigation and adaptation actions, India is also promoting pragmatic, problem-based global cooperation, such as the International Solar Alliance, which India launched at COP21. At COP26, India launched the "Green Grid Initiative - One Sun, One World, One Grid", a framework for global cooperation that aims to effectively leverage global renewable energy and accelerate the mobilization of technical and financial resources needed to advance green grid initiatives. India has also launched the Resilient Island Nation Infrastructure (IRIS) under the Disaster Resilience Infrastructure Alliance (CDRI) to support small island developing States (SIDS) to build resilient, sustainable and inclusive infrastructure and achieve sustainable development in a systematic way.
10. South Africa has made positive progress towards achieving its climate goals. South Africa has established a Presidential Climate Council, adopted a national adaptation strategy, implemented an enhanced mitigation system with rigorous regulation and evaluation, and developed a long-term low-emission development strategy. South Africa updated its more ambitious NATIONALLY determined contributions ahead of COP26, bringing forward the peak year for emissions by a decade. The NDCS also contained detailed information on adaptation, as South Africa's first adaptation communication, which spelled out its need for support from the international community.
In line with the content and spirit of the Paris Agreement, South Africa's updated 2030 target has a lower emissions range consistent with the 1.5 ° C path and an upper emissions range consistent with the 2 ° C path. The extent to which South Africa can achieve within that framework will depend on international support. South Africa is further developing detailed plans to achieve a just transition to a low-carbon economy and a climate-resilient society, with support for affected workers and communities at its core.
11. We welcome the efforts of Egypt, the chairman-designate, to host COP27 and express our full support to it. We are committed to working with all parties to make COP27 a success in an open, transparent, participatory, copy-driven and consensual manner. COP27 should focus on implementation and emphasize the urgency of strengthening adaptation and implementation of credible, adequate, predictable, timely, new and additional financial support and technology transfer from developed countries to developing countries.
12. We stress that developed countries should take the lead in scaling up mitigation actions, fulfilling their climate finance commitments, and respecting the right to development and policy space of developing countries and countries with economies in transition. We call on all parties to focus on implementation actions and translate their respective climate goals and visions into implemented policies, measures and actions.
13. Taking into account the need for international assistance to cope with loss and damage caused by climate change, we emphasize that enhancing the capacity to adapt to climate change and ensuring adequate and predictable financial support for adaptation by developed countries are urgent needs and priorities for developing countries. We welcome the Glasgow-Shamesel-Sheikh Global Adaptation Targets Work Plan as a contribution to global efforts to address climate change, underlining the importance of guiding and supporting intensified adaptation action. Furthermore, we welcome the Glasgow Dialogue on arrangements to finance activities to avoid, minimize and respond to loss and damage related to the adverse effects of climate change.
We call on developed countries listed in annex ii of the convention to expand support efforts in developing countries adapt to climate change and increase resilience to climate change in developing countries, puts forward the implementation of as soon as possible in COP26 promised by 2025 compared to the developing countries to provide adaptation funding of at least two times the level in 2019 refined and clear roadmap.
14. We stress that the level of support provided by developed countries in Annex II to the Convention should be matched by the level of action taken by developing countries. Under the Convention and its Paris Agreement, the provision and mobilization of finance is the responsibility of developed countries to developing countries. Moreover, the ambition of action needs to be matched by the ambition of providing support to developing countries.
We note with great concern that developed countries listed in Annex II of the Convention have yet to meet their climate finance commitments, including us $100 billion per year by 2020. We urge developed countries listed in Annex II to the Convention to implement these commitments as soon as possible before COP27, and to make greater contributions to setting new collective quantitative targets for climate finance after 2025, and to scale up necessary support to developing countries, including finance, technology development and transfer, and capacity building. Enabling developing countries to implement climate action in the context of sustainable development.
15. We are committed to strengthening cooperation on climate change, broadening the scope and deepening the content of our cooperation. We will be in the level of national, local, industry and enterprise to develop clean energy, low carbon technologies, sustainable and resilient infrastructure construction, the carbon market and adapt to climate change in the field of information exchange and cooperation, hand in hand to promote green low carbon development policy research, technology cooperation and demonstration projects to build, with science and technology innovation as the drive, We will promote the transformation and upgrading of energy, resources, industrial structure and consumption structure, and jointly explore low-carbon and sustainable development paths.
We appreciate the discussions on climate change-related issues within the BRICS framework and welcome and encourage brics countries to undertake activities on climate change and sustainable low-carbon transition.
16. We oppose the politicization of the issue of climate change and all forms of unilateralism and protectionism. We stress that unilateral coercive measures run counter to the purposes and principles of the UnfCCC and its Paris Agreement, seriously undermine multilateral cooperation and undermine the ability of relevant countries to better cope with climate change. We oppose any use of the climate agenda to restrict trade and investment and to erect new green trade barriers, such as the imposition of carbon border regulation that violates wto multilateral rules.
17. We encourage countries to share information, difficulties and challenges on specific policies, measures and actions to implement climate goals, in particular best practices. COP27 should be a turning point for countries to translate existing goals and commitments into concrete actions and work together to address the global climate change challenge.