The Climate Agenda for BRICS. An Alternative or a Compromise?

The article considers a set of climate initiatives and documents of the BRICS high-level forum. The author explores the reasons for the association’s active interest in this area, highlights the stages of its formation and consolidation as a separate track in the official documents of the organization. It was noted that due to the specifics of the BRICS charter, its climate action cannot be called a ‘policy’ – that is, a formal action plan. Instead, it can be considered a course that is determined by common interests and needs. The purpose of the study is to answer the question: does this course complement the official international climate regulation regime under the auspices of the United Nations and the Paris Climate Agreement or does it offer an alternative to (contradiction) it. The author applies the method of event-interaction analysis and dissects documents and specialized research literature. The text briefly lists and characterizes the stages of the climate track formation in the BRICS activities chronologically. It is concluded that the strengthening of this trend was a reaction to the vector of complete decarbonization, which was set by developed Western countries. Moreover, it is a reaction to the acceleration of decarbonization through coercive measures. Тhis vector is becoming the main one in the official international climate policy. The author identifies three conditional areas of issues that are of the greatest concern to developing countries in the context of combating global warming. These issues are very ‘sensitive’ for all members of the BRICS group. These are economic, technological, financial and legal groups of problems. Each of them includes or provides mechanisms that create unequal conditions for participants in the climate process. Even more importantly, the conservation of such inequality is produced for the future, and this inequality becomes chronic. The BRICS association evaluates this situation and tries to ensure that the national economies of its members do not fall into the ‘lag trap’. Currently, the group does not go in conflict with the international climate policy and does not set goals that contradict it. It does not do this because there is no goal to violate traditional institutional practices, also due to the peculiarities of the group’s organizational structure. But BRICS requires taking into account the peculiarities of countries and their needs, creating equal conditions for the energy transition in the current reality.