The green challenge BRICS faces

The theme of the just concluded BRICS Summit, "Foster High-Quality BRICS Partnership, Usher in a New Era of Global Development", suggests a multifarious agenda but, in accordance with the phrase "new era of global development", environmental issues figured substantively in the discussions. Which is not surprising, because any new era of global development will have to take on board environmental concerns, especially global warming and climate change, today rather than tomorrow.

A report published by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change earlier this year made it clear that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have to peak by 2025 if the objective of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius is to be achieved. If substantial reductions in GHG emissions are not achieved by 2030, global temperature rise could reach catastrophic levels－in the region of 3 C.

Comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, BRICS occupies a unique position in the global order, which will have important consequences. On the one hand, the BRICS member states are big economies, contributing 25 percent of the world's GDP and 18 percent of global trade. On the other hand, they are all facing significant economic challenges, mainly in the form of eradicating poverty or preventing people from slipping back into poverty.

There is an intriguing possibility that BRICS could expand, given that under the "BRICS Plus" format, leaders of some other emerging economies were invited to attend the summit, as they did the BRICS foreign ministers' meeting last month. That helped them to reach a more wide-ranging consensus and initiate greater cooperation to meet the environmental challenges.

From an environmental standpoint, the in-between position of the BRICS member states has created different kinds of challenges than those faced by developed or other developing countries. For instance, in 2018 the BRICS members accounted for about 40 percent of the world's GHG emissions, which means together they have both the scope and the responsibility of drastically reducing emissions.

The levels of emissions and specific challenges are, of course, different for each of the five countries. Nevertheless, what is common to them is that they are caught between the need to push industrial programs that still require the consumption of fossil fuels on a significant scale, and the imperative of scaling up clean energy sources as rapidly as possible by increasing investment in renewable sources of energy.

A recent study led by Yale University, Connecticut, points to the scale of the problem. It includes an environmental performance index on which Brazil is ranked 81, Russia is 112, South Africa is 116, China is 160, and India is placed last at 180. Among the five countries, all except India improved their scores/performance.

While India's Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has dismissed the report, saying it is based on "surmises and unscientific methods", the authors say they tracked data on 40 indexes from independent sources and focused on the current situation rather than historical emissions or intent, and emphasized the report is designed to help policymaking rather than be used punitively.

The report also says that the main cause for India's poor performance is the deteriorating air quality. Without wading into the debate about the accuracy of the data and method, we can say that the five BRICS members (as well as other countries) face environmental problems. And, as the lead author of the report said, since, for example, India and China are in analogous positions, they can work together on emissions-reduction programs, which would be not just an altruistic strategy but also in their self-interest.

After the Yale report, a University of Chicago study has found that poor air quality is not just a long- or medium-term civilizational challenge, it is also a short-term health problem that has serious economic consequences. The Chicago University's Energy Policy Institute has created an "Air Quality Life Index" which shows that in India, air pollution reduces life expectancy by up to five years compared with what it would have been had the World Health Organization's new guidelines－revised from 10 micrograms per cubic meter to 5 micrograms/m3-been met.

In fact, India does not even meet its own air quality standard of 40 micrograms/m3, with the particulate pollution level pegged at 56 microgram/m3. This imposes a triple burden on the country: the humanitarian one, arising from the failure to give citizens clean air to breathe; the medical costs; and, economically most significant, the loss of productivity due to air pollution.

At the other end of the scale, China, the report says, has made substantial progress in curbing air pollution by an average of 29 percent since 2013, adding to life spans and productivity. Brazil, Russia and South Africa are all over the WHO limit, though they are all better placed than China and India, both of which have bigger economies, the second- and sixth-largest globally, and far higher populations. Given their contiguous locations economically, environmental cooperation would be highly beneficial.

BRICS must take these findings and those from other sources seriously, because air pollution exacts massive economic costs. As the emerging economies look to join the big league in terms of prosperity, measured both in terms of equitably distributed and higher per capita income and better human development index, rather than sheer size, they must eliminate environmental costs on all fronts.

That's apart from the fact that the right to breathe clean air is among the many essential things governments owe citizens.

The author is a veteran journalist based in Kolkata, India. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.