Brazil will not pursue a common BRICS currency during its presidency of the bloc this year, focusing instead on facilitating trade in local currencies despite warnings from US President Donald Trump about challenging "mighty" dollar dominance.

The BRICS bloc is led by China, India, Brazil, Russia, and South Africa, the founding members. They were more recently joined by Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the UAE, and Indonesia, plus a slew of "associate" countries eyeing full membership.

Four Brazilian government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that plans for a shared currency have not progressed beyond political rhetoric into technical discussions.

Instead, the trade bloc will concentrate on reforms to ease international payments in member countries' currencies.

This follows previous statements from Brazilian President Lula da Silva, who had long advocated exploring alternatives to the US dollar. At the 2023 BRICS summit in South Africa, the Brazilian leader emphasised the need to reduce vulnerabilities of member states tied to dollar dominance.

In a similar vein, former president Dilma Rousseff, chief of the BRICS-linked Shanghai-based New Development Bank, revealed the lender intended to "use national currencies for investing in the private sector of the economies of member states."

Trump is naturally not keen on such an idea, and recently threatened to slap 100% tariffs on BRICS countries should they go ahead with similar plans. Last month, he stated that "There is no chance that BRICS will replace the US dollar in international trade, or anywhere else, and any country that tries should say hello to tariffs, and goodbye to America!"

While Lula has moderated his stance on a fully-fledged common currency, he maintains that BRICS nations have "the right to discuss establishing forms of trade that do not make us fully dependent” on the dollar.

The bloc's agenda includes exploring blockchain technology and connecting payment systems to reduce transaction costs and exposure to unilateral sanctions, following Bank for International Settlements standards, three sources said.

"No one wants to create trouble, but BRICS countries also don't want to abandon the idea of exploring this possibility," one source said, adding that member states do not plan to eliminate their dollar reserves.

Brazil's central bank and Finance Ministry recently discussed cross-border payment proposals for the July BRICS summit, set to be hosted in Rio de Janeiro.

Within the region, Brazil already operates a Local Currency Payment System (SML) with Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, though its usage remains limited.

BRICS representatives will meet in South Africa this month during G20 meetings to present Brazil's summit plans.

The bloc, which accounts for an estimated 37% of global GDP, has emerged as a growing trading and diplomatic counterweight to the Western-led G7 since its 2009 founding.

Meanwhile, Lula said earlier this week that Trump’s anti-environment agenda is making it "increasingly difficult" to secure climate commitments from wealthy nations ahead of a key UN summit.

Speaking to Radio Diario FM in the Amazonian state of Amapa, Lula expressed concern about obtaining financial pledges needed to protect forests and ecosystems.

Brazil will host the COP30 climate conference in Belem, northern Para state, on November 10-21. The summit aims to boost funding from developed nations to help developing countries preserve their ecosystems.

Lula chose Belem as the conference venue to put the spotlight on the endangered Amazon region.

Climate-induced wildfires burned 29.7mn hectares of land in Brazil – 57 per cent of which in the Amazon region – from January to November 2024, nearly double the area scorched in the same period last year and the highest in six years, according to a study released in November. 

Brazil, home to most of the vital Amazon rainforest, sees the summit as crucial for securing international support for forest preservation efforts.