THE Indian daily says the country's government has rightly recast India's position on climate change, emphasising equity as the key principle for future climate negotiations. "Given that we cannot get to zero emissions right away with present-day technologies, the individual Indian should have as much right to carbon space as the individual American or European. At this point, the average American emits 19 times as much carbon dioxide as the average Indian. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had offered that India's per-capita emissions rate will at no point exceed that of developed countries." This, the paper says, is a fair offer.

 

"Emissions have got to do with energy use, and energy use has to do with prosperity and quality of life . . . Those who have polluted more in the past and continue to pollute more now surely have the responsibility to make deeper cuts than developing countries. Anything else would amount to a form of environmental apartheid, with developed countries given a greater share of the environment's resources."