Basic nations meet on climate change this week in Delhi

Representatives from India, Brazil, South Africa and China or Basic nations will meet in New Delhi on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss issues related to climate change, an official statement said on Monday.

The 22nd meet of BASIC ministerial group will be organised by the environment ministry to further consolidate the positions of the countries and secure the interests of developing countries, before the 196 UNFCCC member countries meet in May 2016.

The two-day meet is the first meeting of the BASIC Group, after the Paris Agreement was adopted in December 2015.

The group, which was formed in 2009, will also decided on how to carry forward the decisions adopted in the Paris agreement.

"At the end of the two-day meeting, a joint statement will be issued by the Group of Ministers, highlighting the BASIC group position on the way forward for the implementation of the Paris Agreement and its decisions," said the environment ministry statement.

During the 21st meeting of the BASIC Group held in Beijing in 2015, the ministers had highlighted the importance of cooperation among developing countries and voiced their support for further strengthening common positions of developing countries in Paris through the Group of 77 and China.

Along with India's Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar, China's Special Representative for Climate Change Affairs Xie Zhenhua, South Africa's Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs Thomson Barbara and Brazil's External Relations Ministry's Under Secretary-General for Environment, Energy, Science and Technology Jose Antonio Marcondes de Carvalho will be attending the meeting, along with other officials.