India Plans Meet to Share Carbon Space Equitably

Something is brewing in India, where an unprecedented debate about the future of climate policy is raging.  This debate, moreover, is not merely political.  It has a great deal to do with contrasting views of equity, and, unsurprisingly, it is both multi-layered and extremely complicated.  This article from The Economic Times will not allow you to sort it out (it’s too early for that), but it does offer a brief glimpse of a struggle in which ideas clearly matter, ideas that in this case include the both the per capita and GDRs views of fair-shares burden sharing.

We’ll not say more, though we’ll have more to say soon.  Because, beneath a raging techno-economic debate about carbon efficiency and energy consumption, this is really a dispute about the geopolitics of technology transfer and development rights.  Which makes it interesting indeed that the Indian government plans an international conference of experts in June (just after a major UNFCCC intercessional meeting) to sort out the best way forward.  We can only wish them the best of luck.