For the climate arena, the views of Russia are immaterial, insofar as they will be easily bought off.

Besides, people started talking about BRICS some time ago?

Don't know what the deal with SA is because there are several countries more populous and powerful (Indonesia, to take one, or Mexico) and SA isn't very representative of sub-saharan Africa. But maybe they managed to organise the African community in some useful way to let them do the speaking?