India 'may accept' greenhouse gas cuts ahead of climate change summit

India may yet accept Western demands to make cuts in greenhouse gas emissions as part of its campaign for permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council, according to a leaked letter from its environment minister.

By Dean Nelson in New Delhi Published: 4:14PM BST 19 Oct 2009
In the letter to the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, Jairam Ramesh warned that India should play a constructive role in negotiations to strike a new deal to tackle climate change at the Copenhagen summit in December.
India should break away from the G77 group of developing nations pushing for greater financial aid to tackle climate change and play a bigger role with other developed countries in the G20, he said.

Failure to engage as a "dealmaker" would damage India's dreams of permanent membership of the UN Security Council and formal acknowledgement of its status as a global power.
Mr Ramesh's proposal marks a dramatic change of heart which, if accepted by his prime minister, could improve the chances of a climate change deal being struck at Copenhagen.
Until now India has argued that Western decadence and decades of industrial development were to blame for climate change, and that developed countries should pay for its impact in countries like India where floods and droughts have wreaked havoc.
Ministers had contrasted India's greenhouse gas levels as "survival emissions" with the West's "luxury emissions".
It has rejected all suggestions that it should reduce its growing emissions by adopting new clean and renewable energy production rather than continue its dependence on coal-fired power stations.
In the letter, which was leaked to the Times of India newspaper, Mr Ramesh said: "India must listen more and speak less in negotiations" because its position is "disfavoured by the developed countries, small island states and vulnerable countries. It takes away from India's aspirations for permanent membership of the Security Council."