Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Tanmay Kumar, has said that over the past two decades, the BRICS alliance has expanded from an economic dialogue into an influential platform for defining its approach to the critical challenges facing the environment, including pressing global issues of increasing pollution and biodiversity loss as well as global warming. He said this while chairing the Senior Officers’ Meeting of the Environment Working Group and Contact Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development in New Delhi today. He noted that the partnership has broadened in terms of relevance to sustainable development, climate resilience and adaptation, resource efficiency and circular economy, as well as environmental governance.

 

During the meeting, the Chair informed that BRICS 2026 has been guided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision that global cooperation must remain people-centric by advancing a humanity-first approach. It said that over the course of India’s Chairship, the Environment Working Group and the Contact Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development have together advanced cooperation across four interconnected priority areas: Promoting Sustainable Lifestyles; Afforestation, Forest Fire Management and Disaster Resilience; Circular Economy and Adaptation.

 

Further, the Chair stated that these priority areas reflect the unanimous recognition that climate resilience, ecosystem restoration, resource efficiency and sustainable development are deeply interconnected challenges that require integrated and holistic responses rather than isolated interventions in silos. BRICS member countries, including Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Russian Federation, Republic of South Africa and United Arab Emirates participated in the meeting.