India’s BRICS Presidency and Sustainable Development: Priorities and Opportunities

On September 12-13, 2026, India will host the BRICS summit as the current chair. However, New Delhi will be dealing with a “structurally imbalanced” bloc, albeit one with a promising sustainability agenda.

The official website
for BRICS 2026 defines the sustainability pillar as “accelerating collective efforts toward climate action, green finance, energy transitions, and sustainable development aligned with national and global priorities.” Although this clarifies the mandate, a visible tilt towards Beijing in terms of the geopolitics and economics within BRICS highlights an uneasy fact.

Obviously then, the bloc is left with little heft without China in global sustainability dynamics, particularly in terms of critical minerals and large-scale green financing. Yet these facts also present a strategic opportunity for India.

India’s presidency
has the potential to leverage existing alliances, raise green finance through the New Development Bank (NDB), and create a knowledge-sharing ecosystem for the entire Global South. And BRICS can continue its journey under India’s presidency towards pragmatic and non-binding cooperation.

Solving the China Puzzle through Pragmatic Cooperation

BRICS was originally never meant to be a treaty-based organisation capable of entering into binding agreements, like free trade agreements. Historically, the formation is firmly based on political coordination, normative convergence, and project-level collaboration.

Nevertheless, China’s dominance in manufacturing, finance, and critical mineral supply chains also ensures that no “BRICS sustainability” initiative is possible without Beijing. But there is another historical fact: China has yet to show any interest in a philanthropic leadership role within the bloc.

Therefore, New Delhi has an opportunity to initiate a strategic opening. Any direct attempt to counterbalance China is unlikely to succeed. Rather, India can focus on areas where other BRICS members have complementary strengths and bloc cooperation does not revolve around Beijing.

Energy transitions, biofuels, solar deployment, and green finance are those areas where the presidency can redefine sustainability, not as a zero-sum contest for leadership but as a collaborative effort based on each member’s comparative advantage.

Solar, Biofuels Energy Alliances and Beyond

If one promising aspect of BRICS sustainability must be chosen, then it should be energy cooperation. Working on existing initiatives, such as the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the Global Biofuels Alliance (GBA), has strong potential for the future scaling up of collaboration.

India and France co-founded the ISA in 2015. The alliance plans to raise more than US$1 trillion in solar investments by 2030 for over 120 members. The sustainability pillar of BRICS aligns nicely with its mission to promote innovation, lower financing and technological costs, and deploy solar on a global scale.

A “BRICS Solar Corridor” proposal under the ISA umbrella, which focuses on cooperative procurement, technology transfer, and capacity-building for solar-rich but capital-starved member nations including South Africa, Egypt, and Ethiopia, might be India’s contribution.

India’s 2023 G20 chairmanship launched the GBA, with Brazil and the United States as co-founders. The cornerstones of this biofuel collaboration are Brazil’s proficiency in sugarcane ethanol and India’s developments in ethanol blending and second-generation biofuels.

India could propose a BRICS Biofuel Task Force, facilitating joint research and development (R&D) on sustainable aviation fuels, waste-to-energy technologies, and crop-residue management. That task force can promote knowledge and technology exchange across the Global South.

Importantly, none of these initiatives requires China to be excluded. Beijing’s voluntary participation should be sought in all, avoiding any risk of division within the bloc while still advancing tangible outcomes.

New Development Bank: The Green Finance Engine

The NDB, created in 2016, has approved US$42.9 billion for 139 projects to date, with sizeable allocations in renewable energy, transport, water, and sanitation. The project portfolio
includes wastewater treatment plants in China and South Africa, metro rail systems in India, and clean energy projects in Brazil. Financed projects must meet sustainability criteria under the bank’s “Environmental and Social Framework”.

The NDB, under India’s presidency, can reposition itself as the primary vehicle for BRICS green finance. Scaling up financing for renewable energy, which essentially means increasing loans for solar, wind, and hybrid energy projects, may be one of the redrawn priorities, especially in current and future African BRICS+ member nations.

Local currency lending could be another priority area, reducing dependence on the dollar and euro, as China and South Africa have already started doing. Blended finance mechanisms, developed in partnership with multilateral climate funds to de-risk private investment in green infrastructure, could help unlock private capital.

Battery recycling and critical mineral processing are also important priorities. The NDB could create new funding facilities that add value to raw mineral exports from Africa and Latin America, supporting just energy transitions in the next stage.

A Russia-India-Africa Trilateral Group for Critical Minerals

There are some tricky areas when it comes to BRICS sustainability; critical minerals are among them. Any “BRICS critical mineral alliance” is ineffective without China’s participation, as the country dominates the global processing capacity for lithium, cobalt, and rare earths. However, India and Russia are already in the process of a bilateral understanding on rare earths and lithium, covering exploration, processing, and technology cooperation.

This India-Russia cooperation could, in its next stage, expand into a trilateral mechanism with African BRICS+ members (South Africa, Egypt, and Ethiopia) with substantial critical mineral reserves. India’s diplomatic goodwill and development partnerships in Africa, along with Russia’s technological expertise in mining and metallurgy, could forge an alternative supply chain for battery materials and hydrogen technology.

Does such an arrangement attempt to replace Chinese supply chains? No, rather it would diversify them, offering African nations greater bargaining power and value-added opportunities. The NDB comes into the picture in financing processing plants and recycling facilities, while the ISA and GBA provide demand-side momentum through renewable energy and biofuel deployment.

Green Economy Framework and Knowledge Sharing within BRICS

Moving beyond finance and supply chains, BRICS has the ability to catalyse sustainability through knowledge sharing. The BRICS Platform for Environmentally Sound Technologies (BEST), established in 2018, already facilitates technology exchange on air quality, water resources, and waste management. India can add a “BRICS Green Economy Framework” to BEST, institutionalising
best practices.

The BRICS Green Economy Framework could include green bonds and climate-smart agriculture, carbon accounting principles that prevent fragmented national strategies, resilient port infrastructure that absorbs climate shocks, and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) standards for public and private projects.

Consistent with the overall BRICS philosophy, this framework would not impose binding obligations, but it could certainly lead to common standards and a set of tools for member countries to align their national policies. It would be a bridge between BRICS and other Global South initiatives, like the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the Small Island Developing States Resilience Initiative.

A People-Centric and Pragmatic Vision of Sustainability

India’s 2026 BRICS theme—“Building Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”—punctuates sustainability with a “Humanity First” approach. Rather than just presenting rhetoric, it can evolve into a strategic choice that recognises the limits of BRICS as a bloc while maximising its potential as a platform for collective action.

India can lead BRICS towards a practical and significant sustainable development goal by mobilising the NDB for green finance, utilising the ISA and GBA, creating a Russia-India-Africa critical minerals axis, and institutionalising knowledge exchange through a Green Economy Framework.

Instead of competing with China, the goal should be to complement its supply chains by establishing a multipolar, sustainable BRICS ecosystem in which each participant plays to its strengths and the Global South gains from shared innovation, accessible finance, and diverse supply chains.

Under India’s leadership, BRICS can show that sustainability is a global need that calls for collaboration, ingenuity, and an unwavering dedication to the common good rather than a zero-sum game in a world increasingly divided by geopolitical rivalry.