BRICS agrees to carbon market partnership, focuses on rulebook over trading platform

The 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on September 12 confirmed that all eight members will work to implement a Memorandum of Understanding on a BRICS Carbon Markets Partnership. The agreement limits itself to capacity‑building and experience‑sharing and does not set a trading framework, specific targets or a timeline. The memorandum was first noted at the 2025 Rio summit and was reaffirmed by New Delhi as India’s BRICS presidency enters its final quarter, signalling that a common rulebook is the immediate priority rather than a joint trading platform. Eight BRICS countries already run voluntary carbon markets, and Brazil, China, India and Indonesia together host more than one‑third of all carbon‑credit projects worldwide. In China, the national emissions trading system expanded in the 2024‑25 allocation plan to include steel, cement and aluminium. India’s Carbon Credit Trading Scheme has set emission‑intensity targets for 490 firms across nine sectors and has opened an offset mechanism. Brazil’s 2024 law created the Brazilian Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading System, a cap‑and‑trade scheme. Despite these advances, none of the national systems is linked to another.

Context

Linking the separate markets would allow credits to move across borders, boosting liquidity and lowering compliance costs. The current focus on a shared rulebook reflects the need to harmonise measurement, reporting and verification before any cross‑border trading can begin.