Environment and Disaster Management › Climate negotiations and finance

UNFCCC negotiations and the Paris framework

The annual conferences, national pledges, loss and damage, adaptation, and the blocs in which countries negotiate. Prelims has asked about the Paris Agreement of 2015 and about BRICS summits and membership.

Foundation note: The Paris Agreement: how it works

UPSC has asked

Prelims 2016: the Paris Agreement reached at the UNFCCC meeting of 2015

Showing 1 of 6 articles, those that changed from 1 to 31 August 2026.Show all

BRICS as a negotiating bloc

Prelims and Mains

BRICS is an eleven country group in which a Global South position on climate and on trade is now written jointly.

Its declarations therefore 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.

What changed

19 Aug 2026BriefBRICS environment ministers made opposition to carbon border measures a formal position of the bloc and urged developed countries to triple adaptation finance for developing countries by 2035. The Hindu, 19 Aug 2026: BRICS environment ministers oppose EU carbon border tax (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 17 Aug 2026: BRICS Environment Ministers adopt four outcome documents (opens in a new tab) · The Indian Express, 19 Aug 2026: BRICS is working for a future that puts people and planet first (opens in a new tab)

Show history (1 other update)

12 Sep 2026
- India held the chairship in 2026 and hosted the leaders' summit in New Delhi.
- 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.
PIB, 12 Sep 2026: BRICS New Delhi Declaration: Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability (opens in a new tab) · 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)

UPSC has asked

Prelims 2025: BRICS summits and membership
Prelims 2014: BRICS summits and membership

Also filed elsewhere

Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism · on Climate finance, carbon markets and carbon pricing
The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is the European Union's charge on certain imports, paid by buying certificates that track the Union's carbon price.