India Says Developed Nations Are Responsible for Climate Change

“What we are witnessing today is the consequence of over two centuries of industrial activity and high consumption lifestyles in the developed world,” Singh said in a statement in New Delhi today before leaving for the Group of Eight summit in Italy. “It is the developing countries that are the worst affected by climate change.”

Climate change will feature at the meeting of G-8 countries and major developing nations in L’Aquila, Italy, beginning tomorrow. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said yesterday that the European Union will urge the world to accept a goal to restrict global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

A draft G-8 document last week showed the U.S. moving toward accepting the temperature goal, which it previously refused to do.

India’s environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, has said he is talking to countries such as Brazil, China and South Africa on taking a common stand in international negotiations that richer countries like the U.S. and Britain must reduce their emissions 45 percent by the year 2020 from 1990 levels.