RK Pachauri (Debate: ‘Do we need a new Copenhagen plan?’, November 4) makes a persuasive case for a change in India’s climate change strategy for the coming summit at Copenhagen. Sunita Narain is right in saying the damage has been caused by the developed world and it has to pay for it. But it is also a fact that the developed world, as her own figures show, is doing nothing about it. So, whether we like it or not, countries like the US need to be brought on board.
The only way to do this is to undertake what Pachauri has said. Indeed, he has pointed out that India has, in any case, come out with a plan to keep carbon emissions’ growth in check. If India has already come out with such a plan, what is wrong with putting it into the pot in the Copenhagen summit? All that India has to say is that she is willing to do that much extra if the west is willing to walk the extra mile, and to pay for the additional cost that India will have to bear as a result of the carbon-emission controls being introduced. In his contribution, Pachauri has categorically said that the decision to make India’s carbon-control-plan a part of the negotiation strategy has to be contingent upon the west accepting its obligations, to both cut emissions as well as to fund emission-check strategies in the developing world.
Suman Gupta, Noida
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