Jayati Ghosh MANY PEOPLE in the developing world still perceive the discussions around climate change as one more imperialist attempt by developed countries to prevent growth of incomes in their own countries and achievement of decent living standards for the poor. While denial of this sort may be derided, such concerns are not entirely without basis. It is obvious that the developed industrial world has been responsible for most of the climate change effects, and now intends to prevent the developing world from repeating the same patterns. But what is disturbing is that this deeply unequal tendency persists even in the period of global slowdown. Thus, the small minority of the world's population that resides in developed countries consumes the bulk of the world's resources and leaves gigantic carbon footprints, in per capita terms that are many multiples of those created by the people of developing countries. It is commonplace to hear the argument that the rise of China and India is particularly damaging to the environment. But this misses one basic point: Even if the entire population of the developing world suddenly ceased to exist, production and consumption in the North alone would still be such as to accelerate the process of global warming and use up the globe's natural resources rapidly. So, all the negotiations around climate change that focuses on "sharing the burden" or suggest passing the burden on to poor countries through a system of carbon credits, are misplaced, at least, to some extent. It has to be recognised that per capita carbon emissions and consumption of scarce natural resources among the population resident in the developed world must reduce