BASIC Ministerial Joint Statement at UNFCCC COP25

• BASIC countries, a group of four countries namely Brazil, South Africa, India and China participated in the UNFCC COP25 which was organized in Madrid, Spain.
• The Ministers of the Brazil, South Africa, India and China group (BASIC) met during the 25th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25) in Madrid, Spain, on 10th December 2019.
•  The meeting was chaired by Zhao Yingmin, Vice Minister of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China, and attended by Ricardo Salles, Minister of the Environment of Brazil, Barbara Creecy, Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries of the Republic of South Africa, and Prakash Javadekar, Minister for Environment of the Republic of India.
• The Ministers pledged their full support to the Chilean COP Presidency, expressed their gratitude to the Kingdom of Spain for hosting the meeting and noted that the central mandate of COP25 is to prepare the way for the full implementation of the Paris Agreement in the post-2020 period building upon the climate action efforts under the Convention and its Protocol.
• They further stated that the progress on the pre-2020 agenda will be the benchmark of success for this COP. The Paris Agreement, adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, represents a key milestone in the progressive development of multilateralism to enable the international community to collectively address climate change, which is of pressing global concern.

Ministers underlined that COP25 should achieve outcomes as follows:

• To conclude the negotiations related to article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
• To mandate a 2-year Work Programme under SBI to assess the pre-2020 progress and gaps, with a view to making the necessary arrangements to fill those gaps.
• To urge developed country Parties to fulfill their commitments on providing finance, technology development and transfer and capacitybuilding support to developing countries.
• To interpret and implement the provisions of the Paris Agreement in a holistic and faithful manner.
• Recalling that the Paris Agreement represents a delicate political balance negotiated amongst 195 Parties with diverse levels of development and distinct national circumstances, the Ministers expressed grave concern regarding the current imbalance in the negotiations.
• Commitments made by developed countries in the pre-2020 period must be honoured, because the completion of the pre-2020 Agenda is of critical importance in building the basis for mutual trust and ambition in the post-2020 period. 
• The pre-2020 gaps with regard to mitigation, adaptation, means    of implementation and reporting by developed countries must be assessed and closed, without transferring any burden to developing countries. 

Links:

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1596001