Saran’s comments come days after US President George Bush made a fresh statement saying a climate change framework which did not impose emission-cut targets on India and China, alongside other developed nations, would not be meaningful. He said he would raise this issue at the G-8 summit in Japan.

Saran, on the other hand, reiterated India’s long-held stand that only per capita emissions should form the basis for deciding a country’s burden in reducing greenhouse gases. He said any future global regime on climate change must be based on equity and recalled Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement at the launch of India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change last week in which he had emphasised that every citizen of this earth must have an equal share of the planetary atmospheric space.

“This is the most eloquent enunciation of India’s stand. No country in the world can find fault with this,” he said.

Saran, a former foreign secretary, said for countries like India, alleviating poverty and raising the living standards of poor was the most effective way of helping people in adapting to adverse climatic conditions.

“We must ensure climate resilience in our people through development,” he said.

Saran emphasised that refusing to undertake emission-cut targets did not mean that India was shirking its responsibility towards ensuring a cleaner environment. He said the National Action Plan, which had drawn a roadmap towards making India a low-carbon economy, provided a good answer to critics who questioned India’s commitment towards reducing the greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere.

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