“India will not accept any emission-reduction target, period. This is a non-negotiable stance,” says Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh.
Now when it comes to future threats from greenhouse gases, India and China are the two big ones. If India should catch up with the US in carbon emissions, its population of just over 1 billion would emit almost what the whole world emits now!
Minister Ramesh did pledge not to exceed the per-capita emissions levels of developed countries, but that seems a recipe for great increases in India’s carbon pollution. We sympathize, but there has got to be a better solution.