'Climate fight shouldn't become new Non-Proliferation Treaty'

A striking analogy from the Economic Times (India): The fight against climate change should not become the new NPT, the prime minister's special envoy on climate change Shyam Saran said on Tuesday. Drawing a parallel between global negotiations to tackle climate change and the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) that divided the world into nuclear haves and have-nots, Sharan said: "There is only a limited carbon space, which the developed countries have already 'occupied', leaving only a tiny portion for developing countries."

"If I am going to grow, then my emissions will rise. That's inevitable. But they are basically telling us that since we are late-comers, therefore, we cannot increase our share," he told members of the Indian Women's Press Corps here. India's argument on the global climate change negotiations was an "equity argument", said India's chief negotiator on climate change.

Reacting to reports in some developed countries that any country that did not rein in its greenhouse gas emissions may face trade sanctions, Sharan said: "When the Rio summit was held (in 1992), it was dealt as a global challenge. You cannot make certain trade barriers condition to what obligations you have to reach".

However, India would tackle climate change in its own interest, Sharan added. "We recognise that if climate change does take place, the worst-hit will be developing countries. Already it has been calculated that India is spending 2-2.5 per cent of GDP on adaptation to climate change," he said….

U.S. W78 warheads inside MK12A re-entry vehicles on a LGM-30 Minuteman III bus, from the great Chuck Hansen's The Swords of Armageddon: U.S. Nuclear Weapons Development Since 1945 (Sunnyvale, CA: Chukelea Publications, 1995). Photo by an unknown photographer in the US Department of Defense, Wikimedia Commons