At Expert Roundtable in Moscow on BRICS’ Environmental Agenda, Proposals Take Shape for Upcoming BRICS Civil Forum in New Delhi

On June 25, 2026, Moscow played host to an expert roundtable discussion titled “The Environmental Agenda for the BRICS Summit and Leaders’ Declaration.” The event, which took place as part of preparations for the upcoming BRICS Civil Forum in New Delhi under India’s 2026 Chairship, was held under the aegis of the Civil BRICS Council. Serving as a crucial discussion platform, the roundtable helped consolidate the positions of Russian civil society on key issues of the international environmental agenda.

Sergey Rybakov, co-chair of the Ecology Working Group of the BRICS Civil Forum, served as the roundtable moderator. Taking part in the discussion were climate experts, forestry and water resources specialists, and representative of various environmental organizations. Specific participants included:
- Elena Peryshkina, Deputy Head of the BRICS Expert Council-Russia;
- Konstantin Kobyakov, member of the Public Council of the Russian Federal Forestry Agency (Rosleskhoz);
- Alexey Kokorin, climatologist and consultant at the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD);
- Viktoria Elias, distinguished environmentalist and expert of the Russian delegation to negotiations on the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD);
- Tatyana Shuvalova, member of the Public Council of the Russian Federal Water Resources Agency (Rosvodresursy) and of the Nature and People Foundation;
- Mikhail Babenko, expert in sustainable development;
- Anna Chistikova, Junior Research Fellow at the Laboratory for Climate Change Economics under the Institute for the Economics of Natural Resources and Climate Change of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at HSE University; and
- Irina Kostetskaya, Coordinator of the Civic Track at the BRICS Expert Council-Russia.

The event was officially opened by Elena Peryshkina, Deputy Head of the BRICS Expert Council-Russia.

In the course of the discussion, the assembled experts considered four fundamental areas pertaining to preparations for major UN conferences:

 

• Desertification, Land Degradation, and Drought

 

In the context of preparations for the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP17), to be held on August 17–28, 2026 in Mongolia, Konstantin Kobyakov, representing Rosleskhoz, presented a review of land degradation trends across the BRICS countries and outlined a set of measures for countering this problem. Among them are expanding the UNCCD’s mandate to engage in work for combatting desertification, land degradation, and drought; raising the necessary financing not only from public budgetary funds but also from alternative resources; implementing mechanisms for the voluntary certification of a given country’s land degradation balance (under the UNCCD-sponsored Land Degradation Neutrality [LDN] initiative), while simultaneously preventing protectionism that would discriminate against good-faith producers (analogous to the European Union Timber Regulation, or EUTR); and supporting small farmers; as well as instituting mutual recognition across the BRICS countries of their respective national certification systems. Given that attention toward the problem of land degradation remains disproportionally low as compared to the climate agenda—despite its direct and immediate consequences—Mr Kobyakov proposed commissioning the New Development Bank (NDB) to study the feasibility of supporting appropriate land degradation amelioration projects, including through the application of new financing mechanisms. Separately, the expert highlighted the importance of engaging civil society organizations in promoting such initiatives.

 

• Preserving Biodiversity

 

Commenting on the preparations for the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP17), to be held on October 19–30, 2026 in Armenia, Viktoria Elias, who has represented Russia in CBD negotiations, highlighted the fact that the BRICS countries account for a substantial part of the world’s biodiversity, and therefore their contribution has great significance for efforts to achieve the goals set forth by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), adopted at the CBD COP15 in Montreal in 2022. Today, preserving biodiversity is inconceivable without implementing innovation-driven approaches and revisiting legacy approaches to both land use and water use, as well as combatting non-native invasive species; ensuring transparent supply chains; achieving a more equitable distribution of benefits from the use of natural resources between corporations and local populations; and increasing the role of local communities and Indigenous peoples in environmental decision-making.

Ms Elias emphasized that the BRICS countries have been demonstrating growing coordination in the area of preserving biodiversity. Under Brazil’s most recent chairship in 2025, the association achieved a consensus on the need to synchronize national strategies with global objectives.

Russia is taking part in this agenda on a systematic basis. The country is currently working on formulating the Strategy for the Preservation and Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity Through 2036, which will be both synchronized with the global framework and appropriately adapted to national priorities.

 

• The Climate Agenda

 

In light of the upcoming 31st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP31), which takes place on November 9–20, 2026 in Turkey, EFSD climatologist Alexey Kokorin named several key priorities for the climate agenda, which are particularly relevant for the international dialogue in the run-up to key global climate forums. As one of the central themes, Mr Kokorin named the problem of Loss and Damage (L&D). In his view, a particularly urgent issue is the creation of financial mechanisms for climate reparations for vulnerable countries, which have already been tangibly affected by the consequences of climate change, including rising sea levels, the increasing frequency of extreme droughts, the transformation of agriculture, and the need to relocate hydroelectric power stations from flood zones or close mining operations in flooded areas.

Mr Kokorin pointed to the importance for BRICS civil society to adopt a common position that demands real actions instead of declarations. The climate expert called upon the presiding host countries of all upcoming sessions and forums—Mongolia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Armenia, and India—to concentrate on elaborating concrete, measurable solutions.

HSE University climate researcher Anna Chistikova presented an analysis of the potential for climate cooperation among the BRICS countries, highlighting that the BRICS member states are key players in the climate agenda (combined, they account for more than half of all world emissions of greenhouse gases). Moreover, divergent positions continue to prevail within the association on decarbonization, as well as on approaches to developing green energy and biofuels. At the same time, however, the BRICS countries have formulated a set of common priorities, namely: reducing emissions, taking mutual measures to bolster the fight against climate change, promoting technological cooperation in the field of low-carbon technologies, and mitigating the risks associated with the "green" transformation. A critical vector of the work remains BRICS’ aspirations to play a leading role in the process of shaping the international climate agenda.

 

• Water Issues

 

In connection with preparations for the 2026 United Nations Water Conference in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on December 2–4, 2026, Tatyana Shuvalova, representing Rosvodresursy and the Nature and People Foundation, noted the exacerbation of the water crisis and presented a range of proposals for the BRICS countries to strengthen their cooperation on water issues. She highlighted that the BRICS member states should put forth a set of ambitious, clearly formulated, and fully measurable voluntary commitments pertaining to water resources. In her view, this could mean both national-level and collective BRICS-wide commitments, particularly for expanding the population’s access to safe drinking water and public health services, as well as ramping up the volume of wastewater treatment and reuse, restoration of wetlands and aquatic ecosystems, and launching joint technological initiatives, as well as generating target mechanisms for financing water projects under the aegis of BRICS.

Roundtable participants paid particular attention to the problem of the lack of funding for environmental and climate initiatives. It was noted that, despite previous declarations of the need for increased financing, the developed countries have failed to fully meet their current commitments.

 

The Role of the NDB in Addressing Environmental Issues

 

In 2022, the New Development Bank (NDB) together with a range of international financial institutions signed a joint declaration stating their intention to redouble their efforts in the fields of sustainable development, combatting climate change, and preserving biodiversity. The declaration focuses on the implementation of programmes for mitigating and adapting to the adverse effects of climate change, as well as carrying out "nature positive" initiatives.

Sustainable development expert Mikhail Babenko emphasized the significance of this area in particular, noting that the BRICS countries as a whole account for more than 40% of the planet’s biocapacity, thus making the issue of protecting and preserving natural systems particularly relevant for the association.

In Mr Babenko’s view, the NDB could take two key steps to transition such declarative initiatives into practical realities. First, the NDB should revisit its approach to classifying projects; today, ecological and social risks are accounted for in a comprehensive way, whereas it would be advisable to carve out a separate, standalone category for "nature positive" projects, which are geared exclusively toward preserving biodiversity and restoring ecosystems, while detaching such projects from issues pertaining to the displacement and movement of populations and protecting the interests of Indigenous peoples. Second, the NDB would be advised to review the options for establishing a specialized fund within the bank’s own corporate structure with an autonomous budget and its own procedures for supporting environmental projects. In this respect, Mr Babenko cited the experience of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) as a relevant example.