The Opposition has slammed the government over the Copenhagen Accord, saying the document betrays developing nations, and has  compromised India's interests. In a lengthy speech in Parliament this morning, the BJP's Arun Jaitley said the Copenhagen Accord helps developed countries avoid the commitments they made under the Kyoto Protocol. Jaitley also said the  Copenhagen Accord permits international scrutiny of India's actions to deal with global warming, something that the government had...

Having stitched together a climate deal at Copenhagen with a select group of countries, the government will have to do some explaining in Parliament on Tuesday on some provisions in the Copenhagen Accord, especially those relating to international verification of voluntary action taken by India on climate change. The government is expected to argue that agreeing to allow “international consultations and analysis” is in no way a matter of concern....

When a problem is big and tends to profit a powerful group, there’s a time-honoured temptation to sweep it under the rug by assuming it’s natural and inevitable. This was true of slavery until the abolitionist movement of the 19th century, and of colonialism until the contagion of independence movements in the 20th century. Now these same forces are at work in attitudes toward the global and national realities of...

The melting of Himalayan glaciers has been a bone of contention between international environmentalists and the Government of India. The government believes that some perceptions of the international environmentalists are alarmist. Now a new global report has sought to set aside that controversy by measuring the rate at which the Himalayan glaciers are melting. (The report enclosed below) The Himalayan glaciers are melting faster than the global average and the rate...

The outcome of the historic climate change negotiations in Copenhagen hinges on the issues of emissions reductions and financing, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today as he urged world leaders to use the final days of the talks to strike an ambitious new agreement. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has found that to stave off the worst effects of climate change, industrialized countries must slash greenhouse...