The Guardian (amazingly) has published today an important article by David Rose. Entitled Why India is captured by carbon, it illustrates precisely why - despite all the scaremongering and false optimism - the UN's 'make or break' conference in Paris this year will fail to have any serious impact on global GHG emissions. It's full of interesting material. For example:

To many western environmentalists, who are determined to see a binding global deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the UN climate change conference in Paris later this year, India’s rising coal use is anathema. However, across a broad range of Delhi politicians and policymakers there is near unanimity. There is, they say, simply no possibility that at this stage in its development India will agree to any form of emissions cap, let alone a cut.

Prakash Javadekar, the cabinet minister responsible for the environment, forests and climate change, enlarged on this in blunt terms: “Our emissions will grow because we are not developed and we have a right, every person on this Earth has a right, to develop. If today the world is 0.8C warmer [than it was in pre-industrial times], it is not my fault. It is the historical responsibility of those who started emitting with the industrial revolution.”

And there are some interesting comments. This (from Mike Muller) for example:

If only well-intentioned but misguided environmental activists had not campaigned so strongly against nuclear and hydropower, India would not have been caught in this deep coal trap.

And it would be helpful if the greens stopped pretending that solar and wind can fill the gap. Intermittent solar and wind need hydropower (or lots of gas) to balance it. So can they please stop and think before they do any more damage.