Joint Statement by BASIC countries at the Press Conference on 8 December 2015, Paris

The BASIC countries are committed to reach a comprehensive, balanced, ambitious and legally binding agreement on climate change as reflected in their leaders’ statements at the opening of the Paris Conference. The BASIC countries firmly believe that, through joint efforts of all Parties, the Paris Conference will live up to the high expectations of the international community.

As developing countries, the BASIC countries reaffirm their commitment to the unity of Group of 77 and China, and highlight the importance of cooperation among developing countries. They express their appreciation to South Africa for the leadership of the group.

Throughout this conference, the BASIC countries are engaging with all Parties in a constructive and cooperative spirit. Having shown flexibility, the BASIC countries encourage all Parties to show the flexibility required to reach a strong Paris outcome. They commend the COP presidency for its untiring efforts to ensure an open, transparent, inclusive and Party-driven process.

The BASIC countries re-emphasize that, in accordance with the Durban mandate, the Paris agreement is being formulated under the Convention and, as such must be in full accordance with its principles and provisions, particularly the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, which is at the heart of the Paris agreement. They highlight that the purpose of the Paris agreement is to enhance the implementation of the Convention in order to achieve its objective.

The BASIC countries are working for a Paris agreement that addresses in a balanced manner all elements identified in the Durban mandate. At this stage, Parties should focus on resolving the remaining areas of divergence, in order to adopt a clear, concise and coherent legal text acceptable to all Parties in a timely manner.

The BASIC countries believe that ambition and effectiveness of the agreement will be underpinned by operationalizing differentiation between developed and developing countries in each element of the agreement, noting that it might be applied differently to each element in accordance with the Convention. Differentiation does not weaken collective effort to tackle climate change, it rather paves the way to its global effectiveness.

It is the view of BASIC countries that the Paris agreement should provide for Parties to regularly prepare, communicate and implement their enhanced commitments and actions in accordance with the Convention. The BASIC countries urge developed countries to take the lead by committing and implementing ambitious, economy-wide, absolute quantified emission reduction targets and providing enhanced financial resources, technology development and transfer and capacity-building support to developing countries under the agreement. Developing countries will enhance their different types of mitigation efforts and adaptation actions.

The Paris agreement should establish stronger provisions on adaptation, noting the importance of achieving a balanced treatment between mitigation and adaptation and of recognizing that adaptation is a global responsibility, requiring a global response.

BASIC is firmly committed to securing an outcome that will safeguard the interests of all developing countries under the Convention. In this regard, BASIC stresses the central importance of securing access to the support that all developing countries require to keep their people safe and enable them to contribute their best effort to the global response to climate change.

They urge developed countries to progressively and substantially scale up their support in the post-2020 period, with USD 100 billion per year as a starting point, in order to fulfill their obligations under the Convention.

They also support the establishment of a global stocktake of the overall implementation of the Paris agreement and progress towards achieving the objective of the Convention and the global temperature goal. The stocktake should cover mitigation, adaptation and means of implementation in a comprehensive manner.

The BASIC countries highlight the need for enhanced actions by developed countries before 2020, including ratification of the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol on the 2nd Commitment period, to build trust amongst Parties. They call for a strong, comprehensive and meaningful decision on pre-2020 ambition in Paris with a view to laying a solid foundation for post-2020 enhanced action.

Notwithstanding the multiple challenges in terms of social and economic development and poverty eradication, BASIC countries, as developing countries, are undertaking robust actions domestically on climate change. BASIC countries have also demonstrated their highest ambition for the post-2020 period, as communicated in their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs).