CLAIMING CLIMATE MANTLE

There are signs that Brazil, India, South Africa, and China are set to forge a cohesive climate agenda ahead of COP30 in Belém, which is focused on collective action

- Maiara Folly and Jayati Ghosh

Of all the seismic geopolitical shifts in recent years, perhaps the most striking is the West’s rapid decline as a force in global climate governance. Under President Donald Trump’s second administration, the United States has become both more aggressive and more isolationist. Meanwhile, the European Union has grown timid, fragmented, and inward-looking. Will the Global South - especially Brazil, South Africa, India, and China — step up to fill the climate leadership vacuum?

In 1972, at the United Nations’ first major environmental conference in Stockholm, then-Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi famously declared, “Poverty is the worst form of pollution.” To this day, the Global South grapples with the challenge of pursuing sustainable development while promoting environmental responsibility.

The Global South has no shortage of climate visionaries — from Wangari Maathai to Vandana Shiva and Chico Mendes ~ who have connected environmental protection with community empowerment. But the West has controlled the climate narrative for decades, because it dominates the science that informs the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the multilateral development banks that provide climate financing, and the global media outlets that shape public opinion.