Have you heard about the BASIC countries? .

November 30, 2010 by timbercommunity

The BASIC group, reflects a new geopolitical coalition where the increasingly powerful emerging economies are reaching economic as well as political influence. The BASIC group wants world deal on climate change by 2011. In November 2009, Brazil, South Africa, India and China announced a joint strategy stating a common set of non negotiable terms and threatening to jointly walk out of the Copenhagen Climate Summit if any of these were violated.

As a group, the BASIC countries represent more or less 40 per cent of the worlds population. They made out far better than most of the world during the financial disaster and their share of global trade has grown significantly since the early 1990s with higher average economic growth rates than world, U.S. and EU averages.

"Substantive negotiations in COP16 in Mexico may provide a first litmus test of solidarity, and this will certainly increase towards COP17 in South Africa. Yet, given the extent of their economic and geopolitical influence, the BASIC countries will play an increasingly important role in brokering any future international climate change agreement” says Marie Olsson from Stockholm Environment Institute.

Wikileaks cables reveals US determination against the rising economic giants
Maybe it is not strange that there are new constilations in the Globe. The Guardian reports that there have been US determination to seek allies against its most powerful adversaries – the rising economic giants of Brazil, South Africa, India, China (Basic) – is set out in another cable from Brussels on 17 February reporting a meeting between the deputy national security adviser, Michael Froman, Hedegaard and other EU officials. Froman said the EU needed to learn from Basic's skill at impeding US and EU initiatives and playing them off against each in order "to better handle third country obstructionism and avoid future train wrecks on climate".
Read full article in the Guardian 

The strength of Asia's growth is clearly visible in paper production. 2009 produced 43 percent of the world's paper production at 371 million tons in Asia. This figure compares with 30 percent ten years ago. One reason for the shift is significant production closed in Europe and in North America since the mid-2000s, and to mitigate the over-capacity and as a result of the economic crisis and recession 2008 - 2009. Since 2005, the use of production capacity for paper of about 15 million tonnes have been closed in Europe and about 20 million tonnes in North America, for the most part, the closure is permanent. 

The 4th meeting of BASIC countries Ministers from the BASIC countries and Venezuela took place in Rio on the 25th and 26th of July 2010. Representatives discoursed topics central to international climate negotiations, including financing for adaptation and mitigation actions, the United Nations program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation. (REDD) and the criteria for setting limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

They decided to continue the BASIC-plus approach in order to nurture transparency and benefit from a variety of views on climate change issues. They also agreed to broaden consultations with other groups of countries, with a view to actively contribute to a  successful and ambitious outcome in Cancun and beyond.
In the 5th meeting there were representatives from Yemen, Argentina, Grenada, Ethiopia and Egypt.