November 30, 2009. Copyright 2009, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Copenhagen Climate conference -- India
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, November 30, Graphic News:  If, in the past, India's response to western demands on global warming has been a little cool, who can blame it? To a country where 400 million people still have no access to electricity, it must seem rich for the West to insist it matches cuts in carbon emissions.

India, the sixth biggest producer of greenhouse gases, has shifted somewhat from its obstinacy of old, signing a deal with China pledging to collaborate on climate issues, even if it still won't name a figure. India wants economic and technological aid to help it green up its act, and has an ambitious plan to develop solar and other sustainable energy.

India may be rightly critical of rampant consumption in the West (it points out that per capita Indians are responsible for far fewer emissions than those in developed countries), but its insistence that legally binding targets are for "developed countries alone" threatens to widen the rift between rich and poor at the summit.
/ENDS