With almost everyone turning into a climate change specialist suddenly on the eve of the Copenhagen summit, we are being bombarded with all kinds of opinions and theories on what is in India’s best interests. The contrarian views are very puzzling for ordinary people to understand, even for those who have been following the debate for some time.
In “Climate change: Promises, promises” (November 28), Surjit Bhalla argues that India should negotiate on the basis of intensity of output rather than by the per capita emissions yardstick because it is among the lowest in the world. So is our per capita figure.
After wading through the complex assumptions, I fail to understand how it will protect “India’s growth prospects more”. In the same breath, the author says that China’s offer to cut intensity of emissions by 40 per cent is nothing to get excited about. Is he suggesting that we use this route only to sound good at Copenhagen since India would not really have to do much on this score?
As far as I can make out, carbon intensity, which is measured per unit of GDP, will allow countries to fudge the figures. No proof required?
Padma Chandrahasan, Chennai
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