India hosted the 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi on September 12-13, 2026, under the theme ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’.
The New Delhi Declaration reaffirmed support for multilateralism and the Paris Agreement, while highlighting climate-finance gaps faced by emerging markets and developing economies.
BRICS raised concerns over unilateral and protectionist trade measures, including carbon border adjustment mechanisms, saying they could deepen economic disparities.
The summit advanced cooperation on adaptation finance, carbon markets, sustainable finance, critical minerals, hydrogen and global value chains.
India hosted the 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi on September 12-13, 2026, under the theme ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’.
The summit came at a time when emerging markets and developing economies are facing overlapping pressures: climate disasters, conflicts, supply-chain disruptions, financing gaps and a changing global trade order. Opening the summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said crises in an interconnected world could no longer be confined to individual regions, and that BRICS had placed greater emphasis on strengthening resilience.
That focus shaped the New Delhi Declaration, adopted at the end of the two-day summit. The declaration brought together climate change, trade, climate and sustainable-development finance, carbon markets and global value chains.
On climate change, BRICS reaffirmed the importance of multilateralism and the Paris Agreement, while highlighting the disproportionate climate burden on emerging markets and developing economies and the financing gaps they face, particularly on adaptation.
On trade, the declaration raised concerns over unilateral and protectionist measures, including carbon border adjustment mechanisms, arguing that such measures could restrict trade, disrupt global supply chains and deepen economic disparities. The summit also saw new initiatives and cooperation on climate change, global value chains, carbon markets and sustainable finance.
The declaration focused attention on the mechanisms needed to scale up climate and sustainable-development finance. Discussions examined the role of central banks and financial regulators in addressing barriers to sustainable and green finance, including efforts to make climate-finance projects more bankable.
The bloc also encouraged cooperation among finance ministries and central banks, and took note of financing mechanisms for sustainable development and climate-related vulnerabilities.
The declaration called for a significant scaling up of international support for adaptation in developing countries, stressing that adaptation finance should be grant-based and concessional to avoid worsening financial vulnerabilities in developing countries.
The BRICS environment ministers’ meeting also called for accelerated and measurable financial support from developed countries, including fulfilment of commitments under the New Collective Quantified Goal, and reiterated the need to fulfil the decision at the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP 30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on tripling adaptation finance to developing countries by 2035.
The meeting also highlighted the need to track adaptation support, including its provision, delivery and impact. This includes monitoring support for the implementation of National Adaptation Plans.
BRICS opposed unilateral, punitive, discriminatory and protectionist measures that are not in line with international law. It specifically raised concerns over carbon border adjustment mechanisms and other trade-restrictive measures, including tariffs and non-tariff measures introduced under environmental objectives.
The bloc also voiced concern over measures that distort trade and are inconsistent with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. It highlighted the need to strengthen the multilateral trading system and make the WTO more responsive to trade disruptions and the needs and priorities of emerging markets and developing economies, while advancing balanced, inclusive and concrete outcomes.
“The opposition to unilateral climate-linked trade measures must be seen alongside the call for broader and equitable cooperation between developing countries in global higher-value manufacturing,” said Trishant Dev, deputy programme manager, climate change and green economy unit at Centre for Science and Environment, a Delhi-based think tank.
The bloc also highlighted the potential of the BRICS Climate Research Platform and the BRICS Laboratory for Trade, Climate Change and Sustainable Development to promote climate action and build resilience in BRICS countries.
The BRICS declaration supported cooperation in carbon markets, focusing on capacity building and the exchange of experience through the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding on the BRICS Carbon Markets Partnership.
It also welcomed knowledge-sharing through the Dialogue on Aligning Carbon Markets with Adaptation Goals, linking carbon-market cooperation with adaptation objectives.
The bloc recognised ecosystems as carbon stocks and sinks, as well as their role in providing ecosystem services and contributing to climate resilience.
BRICS emphasised the need for broader and more equitable participation of developing countries and emerging markets in higher-value-added segments of global manufacturing and production. It said this should happen through trade and investment initiatives, technical cooperation, productive capacities and technology transfer.
The bloc supported technical cooperation in trade facilitation, infrastructure, industrial capacities, connectivity and access to technology. It also supported the Workplan on BRICS Shared Understanding on Global Value Chains and further development of the BRICS GVC Action Plan 2026–2030, with attention to challenges faced by EMDCs in moving up the value chain.
BRICS also linked resilient value chains with energy security, highlighting stable energy markets, uninterrupted energy flows and protection of critical energy infrastructure. It recognised the continued role of fossil fuels, particularly for emerging markets and developing economies, alongside the need for just, orderly, equitable and inclusive energy transitions.
“The BRICS nations comprise a diverse mix of developing and emerging countries with growing energy needs, industrialisation aspirations and multiple development challenges — it is unlikely that we will hear a fossil fuel phase-out declaration any time soon,” Avantika Goswami, programme manager of the Climate Change and Green Economy Programme at CSE, in a statement.
Goswami, however, also pointed to the bloc’s growing adoption of clean technologies such as solar energy and electric vehicles. She argued that scaling up renewable energy and economy-wide decarbonisation would not only help reduce emissions but also strengthen energy security by reducing exposure to volatility and supply disruptions, including those associated with the Hormuz crisis.
The bloc also supported cooperation on zero- and low-emissions hydrogen and welcomed work on hydrogen value chains.
On critical minerals, BRICS called for reliable, diversified and resilient supply chains, with emphasis on benefit sharing, value addition and economic diversification in resource-rich countries. It also recognized their role in zero- and low-emission energy technologies, energy security and resilient energy supply chains.
The 2026 BRICS summit in New Delhi brought climate change, trade, finance and global value chains into a common discussion on resilience and sustainable development. BRICS also moved towards greater cooperation through new platforms and action plans on climate research, sustainable finance and global high level value chains.
However, the significance of these commitments will depend on their implementation. Whether the bloc can improve access to climate finance, support developing countries in moving up global value chains and ensure that climate-related trade measures do not deepen existing disparities will determine how far the summit's commitments translate into outcomes.
Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth