New Delhi, Oct 28 (IANS): With barely four days to go for start of the annual climate change conference, COP26, India on Wednesday held a meeting with Brazil wherein the two nations agreed to "protect the interests of developing nations".

The annual Conference of Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is to take place from October 31 at the UK's Glasgow. The rift between rich, developed nations and poor, developing nations becomes prominent at the COP when the countries negotiate actions to reduce emissions to restrict global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial era.

"Critical issues of climate finance and technology transfer were discussed at length and both sides agreed to protect the interests of developing nations at the upcoming COP26," India's Environment, Forests, and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav tweeted after the virtual meeting.

The issues related to forestry, biodiversity, and the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework were also discussed.

"Protecting the interest of developing countries" is important in view of the fact that rich nations are demanding enhanced emission cuts from poorer countries but not ready to pay for their historical emissions that are responsible for the temperature rise leading to catastrophic conditions already.

India and Brazil are important partners in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and LMDC (Like Minded Developing Countries) that are several of the multilateral pressure groups/negotiating groups that work for the interests of developing countries.