Together Alone

The report analyzes the BASIC group's role in global climate diplomacy, arguing that while they appear as a unified bloc, their cooperation is conditioned by diverse domestic priorities and broader geopolitical ambitions. It examines the specific drivers for Brazil, South Africa, India, and China, and explores how the group balances its identity as developing nations with its rising global influence.

• The BASIC group emerged primarily as a response to external pressures from industrialized nations, who sought to move the larger emerging economies toward obligatory greenhouse gas emission reductions through forums like the Major Economies Forum and the G8 plus 5 Dialogue.
• While BASIC presents a unified front on broad principles, such as calling for a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and supporting the G77, the group struggles to reach consensus on technical details like equity and carbon budgets.
• The four BASIC countries hold diverging views on how to operationalize equity: India favors a per capita approach, Brazil and China prefer historical emissions, and South Africa supports a mixture that includes capacity.
• Brazil's climate priorities are heavily driven by land use and deforestation, with agriculture and forestry accounting for 83% of its greenhouse gas emissions, making the Amazon rainforest a central point of its diplomacy.
• South Africa's climate policy is constrained by a heavy reliance on coal and the influence of energy-intensive industries, specifically the state-owned utility Eskom and the fuel producer Sasol.
• India's climate diplomacy has shifted from a strict adherence to 'equal per capita access to the atmosphere' toward a more proactive approach, including the concept of 'equitable access to sustainable development' introduced at COP16.
• China's climate policy is deeply entwined with energy security; the realization that oil and coal reserves are dwindling has driven the 'Scientific Development Concept' to reduce energy and pollution intensities.
• BASIC is not a tight negotiating bloc but rather an informal alliance that overlaps with other geopolitical groupings like IBSA and BRICS to increase the members' say in global politics and reform international institutions.
• The group's shared vision is anchored in the principle of 'common but differentiated responsibilities,' which they view as a necessary 'firewall' to ensure industrialized nations take the lead in mitigation.
• Despite being viewed as reactive, the BASIC countries' pledges under the Copenhagen Accord are often more ambitious in terms of deviation from business-as-usual scenarios than those of developed countries.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2011). Together Alone. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-2011-Report-TogetherAloneBASICCountries.pdf

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Together Alone. 2011. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-2011-Report-TogetherAloneBASICCountries.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Together Alone |date=2011 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-2011-Report-TogetherAloneBASICCountries.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2011together, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Together Alone}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2011}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-2011-Report-TogetherAloneBASICCountries.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }