New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) India highlighted on Monday that the BRICS alliance has expanded from an economic dialogue into an increasingly influential platform for defining its approach to the critical challenges facing the environment, including pressing global issues of increasing pollution, biodiversity loss as well as global warming.
The BRICS Environment Working Group-Senior Officers’ Meeting, held at Bharat Mandapam here and chaired by Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Tanmay Kumar, saw participation from BRICS member countries including Brazil, China, Egypt, Federal Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In his keynote address, Kumar said, “our partnership has broadened in terms of relevance to sustainable development, climate resilience and adaptation, resource efficiency and circular economy, as well as environmental governance.”
The Chair informed that BRICS 2026 has been guided by the vision of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi that global cooperation must remain people-centric by advancing a humanity-first approach.
This vision finds expression in the Chairship theme, titled ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation, and Sustainability’. India has sought to advance environmental action through approaches that integrate ecological sustainability with development objectives.
Concluding the address, the Chair expressed confidence that the spirit of co-operation and mutual respect, which has guided the collective dialogues and discussions so far, would continue to guide the deliberations here.
The participating delegations from the BRICS member countries congratulated India for its successful leadership as the BRICS Chair and bringing together the group through productive deliberations on the priority areas, under an atmosphere of mutual respect, trust and consensus-based decision making.
Over the course of India’s Chairship, the Environment Working Group and the Contact Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development have together advanced cooperation across four interconnected priority areas: Promoting Sustainable Lifestyles; Afforestation, Forest Fire Management and Disaster Resilience; Circular Economy and Adaptation.
The Chair stated that these priorities reflect both the shared environmental challenges confronting the BRICS countries and the collective wisdom and strength to address them. They reflect the unanimous recognition that climate resilience, ecosystem restoration, resource efficiency and sustainable development are deeply interconnected challenges that require integrated and holistic responses rather than isolated interventions in silos.
The 12th BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meeting is scheduled to be held in New Delhi on Tuesday.
–IANS
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