Of course, the higher the price that is put on carbon emissions, the larger the funds that are made available for technology transfer, the larger the funds that are made available for adopting more energy efficient among existing technologies, the easier it will be to induce India and other countries to do right. Hence, every step taken towards raising the price of carbon, of increasing the funds available for technology transfers, for adoption of better technologies, will accelerate the change we all want realised.

Next, it is imperative that the measures that are prescribed and the targets that are set are fair and transparent. Just as it is wrong for India to peg its negative stance on the fact that our per capita emissions are as yet low, it is just as unwarranted for others to use the rate at which emissions will increase to urge tough measures to India: with a low base, a given increase will register as a high rate. The fair way would be to use the share that a country has in the increase of total emissions and prescribe measures that it must adopt accordingly? Similarly, clubbing China and India — as is done often when presenting data on likely increases in emissions as a result of new coal-based power plants — is misleading: China is adding a multiple of megawatts from coal-based power generation every year than India is adding. To club the two, pronounce them equally responsible, and thereby urge curtailments of the same magnitude can only provoke resistance.

... contd.