International climate cooperation is taking place under increasingly complex geopolitical and geoeconomic conditions. In this environment, European climate policy is also entering a new phase: the focus is shifting from designing the regulatory framework for 2030 to its implementation and the further strategic orientation towards 2040. With the Clean Industrial Deal, the EU is linking decarbonisation more closely to competitiveness, industrial resilience and prosperity. To achieve these goals, it depends on credible and mutually beneficial partnerships with strategically important third countries such as Brazil.

As a middle power with the ambition to act as a bridge-builder between the Global North and the Global South, Brazil carries considerable diplomatic weight. The country is linking its ecological transformation to the goals of green reindustrialisation, greater domestic value creation and social inclusion. Through its G20 Presidency in 2024, BRICS Presidency in 2025 and hosting of COP30, Brazil has shaped key debates on climate, development and the global order and strengthened its international role in agenda-setting and mediation. Since 2023, Germany, the EU and Brazil have reaffirmed their commitment to closer cooperation.

Brazil’s importance for Germany and the EU extends beyond bilateral cooperation. As a member of the BRICS, it is part of a forum in which climate policy issues have gained importance in recent years and moved further to the centre of the political agenda under Brazil’s 2025 Presidency. The more climate policy priorities are consolidated under India in 2026 and China in 202, the more relevant it becomes for Germany and the EU to assess the role of the forum in climate policy coordination among key partners and how this shapes their positioning in international climate policy. Alongside Brazil, these include Emerging Market and Developing Economies (EMDEs) such as South Africa, Indonesia, India and China.

The research project addresses these two interconnected levels. First, it examines areas of potential cooperation between Germany, the EU and Brazil in climate and industrial policy, including clean technologies. Particular attention is given to the Brazilian elections in October 2026 and to the question of how their outcome will affect the course of Brazil’s green transformation as well as the continuity and direction of cooperation with Germany and the EU.

Second, the project examines how the BRICS climate agenda has evolved in recent years and whether the priorities set under Brazil’s 2025 Presidency will be continued under India in 2026 and China in 2027. It also examines how Brazil and selected EMDEs use the forum to develop and coordinate climate policy positions and diplomatic strategies – including in the run-up to UN climate conferences – and what this means for German and European climate foreign policy and cooperation with key partner countries.

The project aims to identify concrete ways in which Germany and the EU can pursue a more strategic climate foreign policy. Its findings will be translated into recommendations on how cooperation with Brazil can be further developed, cooperation instruments can be used more strategically, and the interests and priorities of both sides can be better taken into account in order to build durable partnerships that help accelerate global decarbonisation. At the same time, the project aims to assess the growing importance of the BRICS in climate policy and to draw conclusions for Germany’s and the EU’s cooperation with selected EMDEs as well as for coalition-building in international climate policy.

Duration:
September 2026 – August 2027
The project builds on the previous project German and European Climate Foreign Policy: Partnerships amid Geoeconomic Competition.

Funding:
The project is funded by the European Climate Foundation (ECF).