Description of BRICS and Indonesia’s Climate Policy

This chapter provides a description of the main climate action policies implemented by the BRICS and Indonesia. We point out that BRICS members have differing interests and incentives. On the one hand, India and China, due to their huge energy needs to support economic development, are interested in reducing their dependence on imported fossil fuels. On the other, Russia and to a less extent Brazil—as large oil and gas exporters—are interested in expanding exports and increasing energy prices, which would clearly hamper the growth possibilities of India and China. Therefore, these differing interests and incentives indicate that the BASIC coalition will continue to act as a negotiation group in climate change issues over a full BRICS coalition. Thus, more efforts should be made for the BRICS to align their economic, energy, and climate interests to be able to act as a coherent bloc in international climate agreement negotiations. We also note whether the BRICS and Indonesia signed the Methane, Coal Exit, 100% Electric Vehicles, and Forestry Pledges as well as the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance at the 26th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC held in Glasgow in 2021. In addition, we focus on the main national climate policy initiatives affecting the energy sector, the industry sector, the transport sector, the building sector, agriculture, and forestry. We also pay particular attention to climate action policy initiatives associated with the creation of an emissions trading scheme, the promotion of renewable energy sources, the improvement of energy efficiency standards, and the electrification of the transport sector.