In its capacity as the 2025 Presidency of the BRICS alliance and incoming Presidency of the UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 30) in November, Brazil announced the BRICS’ approval of the bloc’s first recommendation on climate finance. The declaration, to be presented to leaders at the BRICS’ summit in July, outlines the need to reform multilateral development banks (MDBs) to mobilize private capital for climate action in the Global South.
“This is the first document to guide collective BRICS action in climate finance,” said Brazil’s Secretary of International Affairs at the Ministry of Finance Tatiana Rosito. “It involves reforms to multilateral banks, increased concessional financing, mobilization of private capital, and other regulatory issues to ensure financial flows reach developing countries,” she noted.
The BRICS’ “viewpoint is crucial as a group of major developing countries from the Global South, and it will help us achieve results by the end of the year,” stated Director of the Climate Department at Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Liliam Chagas. Initially comprised of Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa, the alliance currently also includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
A COP 30 host country’s press release notes that among other COP 30 outcomes, Brazil’s incoming Presidency expects a ‘Baku-Belém Road Map,’ detailing the steps needed to reach USD 1.3 trillion by 2035 in climate finance, as required by new collective quantified goal (NCQG) on climate finance. To that end, in April, COP 30 President-designate André Corrêa do Lago established the Circle of Finance Ministers, comprised of 30 finance ministers, international organizations, experts, statisticians, and private sector representatives.
Brazil’s proposed Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) is also among the mechanisms aiming to increase financing by mobilizing private capital.
Approved at the vice-ministerial level, the Leaders’ Framework Declaration on Climate Finance is annexed to the Joint Declaration of the III BRICS High-level Meeting on Climate Change and Sustainable Development of 28 May 2025.
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