Few problems are as pressing and as existential for the world as climate change, and few have proven to be as intractable. Three decades of international negotiations on climate change have yielded little by way of action that would substantially slow, let alone reverse, human-caused climate change. Can things be different?

This paper is the first attempt at examining the growth performance across Indian states during 2001-09, a period also marked by the global financial crisis. We report four key findings. First, consistent with the fact that the decade was the best one for Indian macroeconomic performance, growth increased across almost all major states in 2001-09 compared to 1993-2001. Second, nevertheless, we continue to see the phenomenon of divergence or rising inequality across states: on average the richer states in 2001 grew faster in 2001-09.

Even as the world contemplates stronger action to reduce CO2 emissions to prevent catastrophic climate change, how this goal can be accomplished equitably has become central to the debate. This paper presents an analytical framework to encompass the existing contributions to the literature on equity in climate change.

The basic narrative on climate change between the rich and poor worlds has been problematic. The focus on emissions has made industrial countries inadequately sensitive to the unmet energy needs in developing countries. And it has led developing countries to adopt the rhetoric of recrimination and focus on the legacy of historical emissions by industrial countries.

The furore over Jairam's letter signals how far India has come, and needs to go, as it engages with the world

Industrial countries have never been sympathetic to India

The G-20 meeting in Washington on 15 November is an opportunity for India to help shape the new global economic architecture in line with its strategic interests. India should propose short-term crisis response actions and suggest a clear medium-term agenda.