From oil shocks to resilience: What BRICS’s new agenda needs to address
Between March and August 2026, the West Asia crisis disrupted energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz, and importers paid an estimated USD330 billion more for seaborne crude oil, oil products and LNG than pre-war futures markets had anticipated, with crude above USD100 per barrel for much of 2026. India hosted the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on 12–13 September, where the unanimously adopted New Delhi Declaration set out positions on energy security, clean technology cooperation and global governance reform. On energy, it adopted an Action Plan for a photovoltaic (PV) Industry Working Group and a Solar PV Cooperation Roadmap, endorsed guiding principles on smart grids and energy storage, and advanced cooperation on low-emission hydrogen standards.
Why it matters: The summit's energy commitments indicate that BRICS members are framing the shift away from fossil fuels as an energy security question rather than only an emissions one.