BRICS adopts new disaster-management framework, stresses community-driven resilience

Following the BRICS summit, the New Delhi Declaration presented voluntary guidelines to help member nations cooperate on disaster response, including a framework for sharing weather and seismic data and benchmarks for climate-resilient city planning. Krishna S Vatsa of the National Disaster Management Authority pointed to India's reduced cyclone mortality and urged a last-mile, community-focused strategy. Manisha Choudhary of the United Nations Environment Programme highlighted the need to blend scientific assessments with traditional knowledge, noting that awareness and financing are the biggest hurdles.

The UNEP has supported the NDMA in drafting climate-smart infrastructure standards and is piloting community-based adaptation models in states such as Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Maharashtra and Delhi. Former environment secretary C K Mishra described the documents as a statement of intent for a unified relief-and-reconstruction structure among BRICS countries.