On November 15, the four BASIC nations–Brazil, South Africa, India and China–held a joint press conference in which they called for developed countries to strive to reach their emissions reduction targets by 2020 and honor their commitments to financially support developing countries.

The conference was held during the two-week 23rd “Conference of the Parties” climate talks under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bonn, Germany.

According to the UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement, developed countries are required to take the lead in fulfilling the emissions targets by 2020 and support developing countries with $100 billion every year. That, however, has become the essential issue of the negotiation between developing and developed countries at every round of the climate conference talks.

BASIC nations are very concerned about the implementation of the financial support, which is also in line with the spirit of the Paris Agreement, said Brazil Environment Minister José Sarney Filho.

Ministers of the four nations urged developed countries to fulfill their promises and scale up funding to achieve the goal of providing developing countries with $100 billion every year by 2020, and to greatly improve the capital after 2020. To realize equity and justice, developed countries should not set arbitrary standards or classify developing countries into different categories, Indian Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan added.

According to Xie Zhenhua, China's special representative on climate change affairs, developed countries are expected to fulfill their promises and implement the consensus reached before.

Xie told Beijing Review that the cooperation mechanism of the four BASIC countries is highly significant. “As important developing countries, the large populations, economies and emissions of BASIC countries are decisive, and our solidarity and coordination are very critical. We need to fulfill our internal emissions targets while strengthening international cooperation.”

Representatives of all four BASIC nations said they had fulfilled their targets and even surpassed their promises.

Copyedited by Chris Surtees

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