Greenery by stealth

BEING green often seems to mean pledging to cut carbon dioxide emissions: that is, saying that your country would emit vast amounts of carbon dioxide in 2030 if it didn’t do anything and then claiming how much less it will actually emit as a result of your wise and responsible policies. As part of negotiations for a global climate treaty due to be signed in Paris at the end of the year, almost every big country has set itself an emissions target—except one. India has promised only to limit the amount of carbon dioxide per unit of GDP: a relative target, not an absolute one. This might seem like a cop-out. India is the world’s fourth-largest emitter. It will be the biggest single contributor to new greenhouse-gas emissions in the next 15 years. Although rarely treated as such, India is one of the big beasts of the climate arena. Over the next 15 years it will have as great an environmental impact (for good or ill) as America or China.