At odds with Trump, emerging giants back Paris climate deal, free trade

The BRICS group of four major emerging market countries urged fellow members of the Group of 20 major economies on Friday to push for the implementation of the Paris climate deal that was rejected by the United States.

In a joint communique issued on the first day of the G20 summit on Friday, Brazil, Russia, India and China also called on their peers to commit themselves to maintaining an open global trading system.

Both positions put the four emerging market giants at odds with U.S. President Donald Trump, whose withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement to tackle climate change and protectionist instincts risk leaving him isolated at a two-day G20 summit in Hamburg.

"We call upon the international community to jointly work towards implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change," they wrote.

"We firmly support a rules-based, transparent, non-discriminatory, open and inclusive multilateral trading system, implementation and enforcement of existing WTO rules and commitments and oppose protectionism."