Brazil, South Africa, India, and China - have called for a Paris climate agreement in line with the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.

Negotiators from almost 200 countries are working on reaching a deal by the end of the week.

China's Special Envoy on Climate Change Xie Zhenhua says the group of developing countries are committed to reaching a "comprehensive, balanced, ambitious and legally binding" agreement on climate change.

The official also stressed the importance of fighting pollution and transitioning to a "green economy" for China, as Beijing invoked its first ever red alert for smog.

"It means that China, in its industrialization and development process, we indeed need to transform our economic growth pattern to adjust our economic structure, our energy mix, our infrastructure. It is fair to say that solving environmental issues and working to address climate change is all interconnected."

The BASIC bloc has also urged developed countries to take the lead by committing to and implementing ambitious emission reduction targets and providing various supports to developing countries.

India's Environment Minister, Prakash Javadekar, says financial and technological supports from developed nations are important.

"As far as finance is concerned, the action of the developing world depends upon to a large extent on finance and technology support from the developed world. Because they have, and the developing world don't. So haves will provide the have not. That's the simple logic."

In a joint statement, the group has called on developed countries to scale up their support in the post-2020 period, with 100 billion U.S. dollars per year as a starting point.