UNFCCC negotiations and the Paris framework

Prelims and Mains

Loss and damage is the third thing the climate regime has had to deal with, after mitigation and adaptation, and it took the annual climate meetings a decade to give it a fund.

• The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), agreed in 1992, is the treaty countries negotiate under, and its Conference of the Parties (COP) is the annual meeting that takes the decisions.
• Common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC), set in that 1992 convention, is the principle every developing country argument returns to: the case that developed countries lead on mitigation, finance and technology, because they emitted most and can do most.
• The Paris Agreement of 2015 replaced assigned targets with nationally determined contributions, which each country sets for itself and is expected to revise upwards over time.
• Contributions to the fund are voluntary, and the United States has pulled out.
• The decision adopting the Paris Agreement says Article 8 creates no basis for liability or compensation, which keeps the fund charity rather than damages.

Background reading: The Indian Express, 9 Sep 2026: Expert Explains | How floods triggered Nepal's demand for compensation (opens in a new tab)

Prelims and Mains

The eleven country group is where a Global South position on climate and on trade is now written jointly, which is why its declarations read as one document on both.

• South Africa joined the four founders in 2010, and expansions in 2024 and 2025 took the group to eleven members, Indonesia the latest.
• India held the chairship in 2026 and hosted the leaders' summit in New Delhi.
• BRICS environment ministers, meeting on 18 August, adopted four outcome documents and made opposition to carbon border measures a formal position of the bloc.
• They urged developed countries to triple adaptation finance for developing countries by 2035.
• The New Delhi Declaration of 12 September lifted those positions into a heads of government text, calling carbon border measures unilateral, punitive and discriminatory.
• It accepts a continuing role for fossil fuels in developing economies, asking instead for just, orderly, equitable and inclusive transitions.
• It launches a BRICS Carbon Markets Partnership and backs Ethiopia's COP32 presidency.

Background reading: The Indian Express, 13 Sep 2026: Need 'orderly & inclusive' energy transition, fossil fuels will continue playing key role: BRICS declaration (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 17 Aug 2026: BRICS Environment Ministers adopt four outcome documents (opens in a new tab)