Times of India , Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Correspondent : Staff Reporter

WASHINGTON: India and China should not be bound by the same restrictions on carbon emissions as those imposed on the United States and other developed nations, a top UN official has said. As US President George W Bush is expected to call on American Congress to pass a law combatting global warming, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN climate treaty secretariat, said India and China should not be bound by the same restrictions that will have to be imposed on the US and other developed countries. "I don't think that's realistic," de Boer told The Washington Times , making the point that developing nations are still at the "beginning" of development and the developed world has a “historical responsibility” for greenhouse gas emissions. "Developing countries say, rightly I believe, you rich countries have been pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution," he said. The top UN climate negotiator has compared China and India to new tenants in apartment building that have fallen into disrepair and are told upon renting a unit that they will have to pay for capital improvements. "The tenants need to decide among themselves but meanwhile, nobody's maintaining the building while the tenants fight," he added. The Bush administration has said that while the US is prepared to seriously talk about climate change any final agreement will have to include countries like India and China.

SOURCE : Times of India, Tuesday, 15 April 2008