Beyond Fossil Fuels

Abstract

The group of countries known as BRICS—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—is both influencing and being influenced by global energy markets and the clean energy transition. For BRICS, like all other countries, the clean energy transition is being driven by both external and domestic factors: international climate commitments, plummeting costs of renewables and domestic needs to improve energy efficiency as well as to reduce local air pollution. Large energy importers such as China and India also benefit from domestic generation from renewable sources as a way of decreasing their dependence on imports and improving energy security and trade balance. China and India already invest more in solar and wind than in fossil fuel-based power