BRICS pledge cooperation on climate change

RIO DE JANEIRO - The BRICS bloc of emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, said Monday it would strengthen cooperation to fight climate change through a series of joint resolutions.

BRICS representatives issued a joint statement containing the resolutions agreed to by the five countries at the two-day 16th BRICS Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change, which concluded Monday in Foz do Iguacu, southern Brazil.

The BRICS countries said they were fully committed to the successful outcome of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference, to be held in Warsaw, Poland, in November.

They pledged to back the Polish government's efforts to "achieve a comprehensive and balanced outcome in Warsaw, in an open and transparent, inclusive ... process."

The five countries also agreed on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP), a set of commitments on global warming that were established at the 2011 UN Climate Change Conference, in Durban, South Africa.

The BRICS ministers said the ADP's process and outcome should be guided by and be in full compliance with all the principles and provisions of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The BRICS stressed the need for "a balanced approach between all pillars of the Durban Platform - mitigation, adaptation, finance, capacity-building, technology development and transfer, transparency of action and support," saying that the ADP's outcome should not rely solely on mitigation, but take all other factors into consideration as well.

The Durban platform is expected to be signed in 2015 and take effect in 2020.

The BRICS said it believes in the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities," and called for commitments from all countries.

"Responsibility for climate change ... rests on all countries, differentiated according to the extent to which they have contributed historically to the urgent problem which we now face, taking into account national circumstances, capabilities, population, development needs, in the context of equitable access to sustainable development," said the joint statement.

Argentina, Fiji, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela also had representatives at the meeting.

The next BRICS Ministerial Meeting will be held in China in the fourth quarter of 2013.