This article examines the position of four of the most influential Emerging Market Economies — Brazil, China, India and South Africa — on issues that require global action featuring in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda, recognizing that these play a pivotal role in the implementation of this new global agenda. It focuses on the five issues of global finance, technology transfer, trade, climate change and global governance. All except climate change are included in the 17th SDG, and most featured in the discussion at the third International Conference on Financing for Development, held in Addis Ababa in July 2015.

The article is based on four country -level background papers conducted by institutions in each country, and draw on interviews with local policy makers. It also draws on content analyses of country statements from the different negotiating forums, further interviews with experts and a literature review.

The first section provides a summary of the countries’ engagement in the negotiations and national policy developments related to the SDGs to date, as an (imperfect) signal of their interest in implementation. The Next section analyses what emerging economies stand to gain or may be asked to bring to the table for each of the five issues, while the final section summarizes the key findings.