India

Vladimir Radyuhin Russian scientists deny that the Kyoto Protocol reflects a consensus view of the world scientific community. As western nations step up pressure on India and China to curb the emission of greenhouse gases, Russian scientists reject the very idea that carbon dioxide may be responsible for global warming.

K. Venugopal Sapporo: Leaders of 16 of the world's major economies meeting at the venue of the G8 summit at Toyako in northern Japan found enough common language to take forward their negotiations on how to mitigate the challenge of climate change. Yet it was not quite the language that India would have liked. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said as much when he told the leaders, including U.S. President George Bush, that "even if some of our views have not been incorporated as we would have wished, we should adopt the text as it is.'

Bloomberg / Toyako (Japan) July 09, 2008, 0:08 IST ...ask each country to pursue its own path in tackling global warming. Group of Eight leaders pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions at least 50 per cent by 2050, while leaving each country to pursue its own path in tackling pollution blamed for global warming. The declaration at the G-8 in Toyako, Japan, included a promise to share the "vision" of a low-carbon economy with less developed nations, embracing calls by President that countries such as China and India be included in any climate accord.

Sudha Mahalingam With global carbon galloping, you can neither negotiate nor argue with Gaia. Not when she is on her sick bed. We need a paradigm shift in the way we perceive development.

By Suneel Sinha Sapporo, Japan, July 8: India's foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon said here on Tuesday that it was "for those who have generated the greenhouse gases that are in the environment today to take the cuts to reduce gases. It's not for the developing countries (to do so). Our emissions are minuscule. It is not for us to make long-term binding commitments." Mr Menon was speaking to reporters here on Tuesday evening after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had a series of meetings with world leaders.

Sapporo, Japan July 8: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to counter US pressure to commit India to a 50 per cent cut in greenhouse emissions when he meets US President George W. Bush on Wednesday by telling the Americans that developed nations should go first because they had created the problem.

BY JOSEPH COLEMAN,Rusutsu, Japan July 7: Top industrialised nations need to push forward global talks on climate change and demonstrate their commitment to help poorer nations grapple with rising food prices, the UN and World Bank chiefs said on Monday. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank president Robert Zoellick said rich nations need to strengthen their efforts to meet goals for poverty reduction and education because of instability in the world economy.

From the window of a Boeing, few countries are greener than Brazil. Since much of this vast territory in the heart of South America is still unpeopled and unblemished, it's not surprising that Brazil looks good against the backdrop of a mistreated planet. It ranks 34th of 149 nations in Yale and Columbia's Environmental Performance Index

A global report card on nations doing the most, and least, to clean up the environment.