On April 20, the Socio-Environmental Platform of BRICS Policy Center (BPC), in partnership with the Climate and Society Institute (iCS) and the Post-Graduate Program of Social Sciences in Development, Agriculture and Society of the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (CPDA/UFRRJ), promoted the virtual round table “How big is the BRICS countries’ climate ambition?”.

The event brought together experts from the five BRICS countries for an important debate about the real ambition of the commitments and policies adopted by these nations to combat climate change in light of the Paris Agreement. David Tsai, coordinator of the Observatório do Clima’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimation System (SEEG, in portuguese), talked about Brazil’s climate ambition. To comment on South Africa’s climate ambition, we brought Sibulele Poswayo, Chair of the BRICS Civil Forum Working Group on Gender Equality. Angelina Davydova, environmental journalist, observer at UNFCCC climate conferences, and expert on international climate policy, talked about Russia’s climate policy. Tian Yan Baxter, consultant on agriculture and environment for the Global Environmental Institute (GEI), commented on China’s position on the issue. And India’s climate ambition was discussed by Soumya Dutta, executive member of Friends of the Earth India and trustee of Movement for Advancing Understanding of Sustainability And Mutuality (MAUSAM), and Aditi Kapoor, co-founder and director of Alternative Futures.

Beatriz Mattos, professor of International Relations at Universidade Veiga de Almeida (UVA) and co-coordinator of the Socio-Environmental Platform, was also part of the roundtable to present the main findings of the executive summary “BRICS countries’ climate ambition, of which she is a co-author. The study was published earlier this year and you can download it for free right on this website.

The event was opened by Ana Garcia, director of BPC, Maureen Santos, co-coordinator of the Socio-Environmental Platform, and Cíntya Feitosa, international relations advisor at iCS. The virtual round table was moderated by Fabrina Furtado, professor at CPDA/UFRRJ.

Watch the recording of the event, uploaded to YouTube, below: