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As the world enters a dystopian phase, the BRICS Plus nations will shape and guide an inclusive world order that is fair and just and expands equity and equality for humanity.
By ASHRAF PATEL
2025 got off to a big bang – literally and politically. In a rapidly fracturing geo-political order the outrageous statements by Trump 2.0 on Greenland and Panama Canal may signal a return to the old imperial order modelled on its 18th century frontier trade and ‘gunboat diplomacy’ order.
The shocking behaviour of Big Tech titans, all of whom seek to ingratiate themselves with King Trump – Elon Musk’s direct real-time involvement in nations states via X in Germany’s elections, to the goading of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Mark Zuckerberg’s sudden ending of fact-checking on Facebook – is of grave concern for the public sphere.
Meanwhile, as the tragic fires were raging in California, and as Los Angeles was burning to the ground, the billionaire tech titans went AWOL, supposedly because California is a ‘Blue state’, yet they were preparing to fund King Trump’s MAGA coronation on January 20. So much for the ‘United States of America’ where decades of Silicon Valley-style capitalism have generated social media dystopia, cowboy capitalism, the military-industrial complex amidst mega budget cuts, and now planetary climate chaos.
It is thus refreshing that the Global South, anchored by BRICS, is now the new champion of multilateralism, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Agenda and programmes for genuine reform of global governance.
Nine new members joined BRICS on January 1, 2025: Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Thailand, Uganda, and Uzbekistan, and is expanding along the lines of the Non-Aligned Movement to shape a new multi-polar world order.
With its nine members and nine partners, BRICS now makes up roughly half of the global population and more than 41 percent of world GDP.
The group is an economic powerhouse, including top producers of key commodities like oil, gas, grains, meat and minerals.
BRICS’ East anchor signals manufacturing power and prowess
Anchored in the East, with core members of ASEAN – Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand – BRICS is set to ensure smoother trade and investment harmonisation, as the New Development Bank (NDB) is an addition to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Jakarta with its high-speed urban network, funded by China and Vietnam, is already a middle nation powerhouse whose manufacturing output now exceeds that of South Africa and India. This all attest to the power of manufacturing and supply chains in global growth.
BRICS membership and the Latin America shift
Latin America’s commitment to a progressive global order deepens. Chile, Colombia and Brazil are solid progressive left governments committed to the UN and progressive multilateralism. Bolivia and Cuba’s ascension into BRICS further strengthens the Latin American left wave. Bolivia is especially vulnerable following public remarks by Musk calling for regime change in the country and demanded access to its lithium. By joining BRICS, Bolivia has access to important programmes and resources that BRICS and a community of support and solidarity.
Cuba would benefit immensely from mitigating the effects of the decades-old US blockage and would see much-needed investment and trade in essential goods and services and intra-BRICS trade and development cooperation.
The member states of the People’s Trade Treaty (TCP), which is part of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), applauded with satisfaction ‘the sisters and brothers of the Republic of Cuba and the Pluri-national State of Bolivia for joining the BRICS bloc as partners, which represents an important step towards a multi-polar world’.
The ALBA-TCP statement continued: ‘For the Bolivarian Alliance, it is a source of joy to know that two member countries are part of a platform that is emerging with increasing strength to work on strengthening multi-lateralism for a more democratic world order; deepening cooperation for global stability and security; expanding financial and economic cooperation for equitable development; promoting exchange for the socio-economic progress of the world, and consolidating a more just, humane and supportive world.’
Africa’s BRICS momentum grows as Uganda and Algeria join in 2025
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Alongside Egypt and Ethiopia, the incorporation of Uganda and Algeria further sees key nations in Africa that stand to benefit from BRICS, particularly in infrastructure development, rail and road corridors, as well as meeting UN Sustainable Development Goals. SDGs. Nigeria, whose naira collapsed and has major energy challenges despite being an energy exporter, is set to seek BRICS membership in 2025-26.
BRICS programmes are attractive to new members. These will greatly assist much of Sub-Saharan Africa in the decade ahead in the area of climate finance, agricultural technology, the digital economy, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the BRICS vaccine platforms.
According to Peter Fabricius, writing in Daily Maverick on January 14, 2025, South Africa faces many headwinds under Trump 2.0. ‘For a US president who is publicly threatening to take Greenland and Panama by military force – and also to annex Canada through crippling economic pressure – kicking South Africa out of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), or even trashing the whole programme, would be a small change.’
As South Africa prepares to host the G20 in 2025, there will be a significant focus on the need to address the major African debt crisis and the super-high cost of financing. Here BRICS nations, and not the G7, will co-shape the new financial models, debt write-offs and genuine climate finance to ensure sustainable development.
China and Brazil are the powerhouses of climate change and green energy
On climate change, BRICS has championed the principle of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities’. This ensures that climate actions consider different levels of development while balancing environmental goals with economic growth and poverty. Moreover, BRICS played a key role in introducing the notion of ‘climate justice’ into the Paris Agreement.
Brazil under the leadership of President Lula da Silva, and South Africa under President Cyril Ramaphosa, have anchored the BRICS-centric agenda within the framework of the more inclusive Group of Twenty (G20) rather than the exclusive Group of Eight (G8). The model of the former is rooted in the Sustainable Development Agenda of the UN and the genuine need for global governance reform and shaping of multilateralism..
Pointing to Brazil’s strengthened relationship with China, Leo Horn-Phathanothai and Rogerio Studart write: ‘Both have also been championing South-South cooperation via new institutions and spaces through which climate cooperation could be rapidly scaled. Among these are the New Development Bank, or “BRICS bank”, headquartered in Shanghai and now headed by former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff; the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank; the Boao Forum for economic cooperation; China’s South-South Climate Cooperation Fund (SSCCF); and the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s infrastructure investment programme that has now reached around 150 countries.’
In terms of green energy investments, China is the clear global leader. A recent sector-by-sector analysis for Carbon Brief – a UK-based website covering the latest developments in climate science, climate policy and energy policy – highlighted the following key findings:
- Clean-energy investment rose 40 percent year-on-year to 6.3tn yuan ($890bn), with the growth accounting for all of the investment growth across the Chinese economy in 2023.
- China’s $890bn investment in clean-energy sectors is almost as large as total global investments in fossil fuel supply in 2023 – and similar to the GDP of Switzerland or Turkey.
- Including the value of production, clean-energy sectors contributed 11.4tn yuan ($1.6tn) to the Chinese economy in 2023, up 30 percent year-on-year.
- Clean-energy sectors, as a result, were the largest driver of China’s economic growth overall, accounting for 40 percent of the expansion of GDP in 2023.
Horn-Phathanothai and Studart, add: ‘As a leading manufacturer and supplier of low-carbon energy technologies, China is uniquely positioned to drive investments that accelerate the adoption of affordable solutions worldwide, thereby facilitating green transitions. China is already contributing to this effort across Latin America and other regions. Meanwhile, the current Brazilian government is proposing a new industrial policy and an ecological transition programme focused on enhancing resilience, promoting environmental sustainability, and advancing energy transition in all its productive sectors.’
The year 2024 was the hottest year on record and as the global population and urbanisation surged, the California fires and Mozambique floods, and uneven weather in South Africa, attest to the need for real climate finance and investment in adaptation and mitigation.
As the world enters a dystopian phase, the BRICS Plus nations will shape and guide an inclusive world order, one within the UN Sustainable Development Goals’ agenda, one that is fair and just and expands equity and equality for humanity
Another world is possible under BRICS!
Ashraf Patel is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD), University of South Africa (Unisa).
