it will however provide multiple social economic and environmental dividends and constitute muchneeded first steps towards lowcarbon social and economic development a marked shift from the rio earth summit to the rio summit has been the role of emerging economies although the five countries have different economic endowments they are facing similar challenges to sustain economic growth save natural resources and protect the environment reflecting the broadening of the brics agenda since the first brics summit was held in the first ever meeting of brics environment ministers was held in the russian federation in april