BASIC countries

BASIC countries

Subject – IR

Context – COP26: India, Brazil, China, S Africademand $100-b climate finance support

Concept –

• The BASIC countries — a grouping of Brazil, South Africa, India and China.
• The BASIC group was formed as the result of an agreement signed by the four countries on November 28, 2009.
• The signatory nations, all recently industrialised, committed to act jointly at the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009, including a possible united walk-out if their common minimum position was not met by the developed nations.
  • The BASIC countries constituted one of the parties in the Copenhagen Accord reached with the US-led grouping; the Accord, was, however, not legally binding.
• These nations have a broadly common position on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and raising the massive funds that are needed to fight climate change.
• The BASIC group wields considerable heft purely because of the size of the economies and populations of the member countries.
  • China, India, and Brazil are the world’s second, fifth, and ninth-largest economies.
  • Brazil, South Africa, India and China put together has one-third of the world’s geographical area and nearly 40% of the world’s population.
• BASIC is one of several groups of nations working together to fight climate change and carry out negotiations within the UNFCCC.
• These major developing economies are significant polluters but bear diminished responsibility for the carbon dioxide that has been pumped into the atmosphere since 1850 and also have low per capita emissions because of their significant populations.
• These countries have therefore for many years sought to rebuff pressure from developed countries to take on firmer emission reductions.

Paris Rulebook

• While the Paris Agreement laid out the framework for international action, the Rulebook will set this Agreement in motion by laying out the tools and processes to enable it is implemented fairly and properly.
• Countries had agreed to develop and finalise the Paris Rulebook at COP24 in Poland in 2018.