BRICS needs to address CBAM consequences

Source: The Hindu Business Line | Original Published At: 2026-10-09 02:00:00 UTC

Key Points

• The article says the BRICS climate agenda should develop credible cooperative alternatives to unilateral trade and climate measures, including the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
• It notes that the 2026 BRICS Declaration largely repeats the 2025 Rio Summit Declaration and omits earlier language on carbon accounting.
• The piece highlights that EU deforestation regulation and due diligence rules will impose traceability, documentation, verification, and supply-chain requirements on BRICS exporters.
• It identifies carbon accounting as central to the trade-climate challenge, warning that fragmented methodologies can create different carbon values for the same product.
• It discusses India’s Carbon Credit Trading Scheme and the UK’s recognition of it for CBAM carbon-price relief, while noting verification and data challenges.
• It says the EU Parliament’s approval of additional CBAM product codes could increase risks for Indian exporters from 2028.
• It calls for BRICS to raise unoperationalised unilateral climate measures at COP31 and develop mutually recognized carbon-pricing equivalences.