India and China Sign Climate Pact — Bad News for Copenhagen
India and China will present a united front at future climate change talks, boosting the developing world's bargaining power. On Wednesday the two nations, the two largest carbon dioxide emitters in the developing world, bound themselves together to a common stance for five years. It's not just a bargaining position though, as they will be making joint efforts to cut emissions. But crucially, they continue to resist fixed targets for reductions.
China continues to outpace the U.S. in the developing of green technology, and this agreement has the potential for India and China to collaborate in the developing of cheap turbines. But what about India? The focus is usually on China Vs America as the two biggest polluters that India is often forgotten.
A Time report explains that one Indian worker would love to move from a coal-fired electric one to a more efficient electric one, but the issue at the moment is one of cost. The Indian position is that developed nations must take the burden of reducing emissions responsibilities, since they emitted the most as they themselves developed — the developed world is responsible for 72% of overall emissions. India claim to be going beyond the call of the duty, with its per-capita emissions being so low, and decreasing in some respects, but it's the likely emissions they'll produce over the next fifty years that the developed world fears. Many in India consider that they must be allowed freedom to develop their industries, and that unless developed nations provide funds for green technology, an emissions increase will be inevitable.
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