India, Brazil say rich lack ambition at climate talks

DOHA, Qatar — India and Brazil accused rich nations Thursday of doing too little to fight climate change at U.N. talks in Doha and denied that emerging economies were backing away from pledges to step up action by 2020.

The United States and the European Union, the top rich emitters, have said they will not increase planned cuts in emissions by 2020 as part of wider efforts to shift from fossil fuels toward renewable energies.

In turn, rich nations want more action by the fast-growing emerging nations — India is the No. 3 greenhouse gas emitter behind China and the United States, while Brazil ranks about17th.

World emissions of carbon dioxide rose about 3 percent last year, largely because of strong growth in emerging economies despite a slowdown in many rich nations.

As each faction presses its case, the talks are stalling efforts to set up ways to slow a rise in temperatures that the U.N. panel of climate scientists says will bring more floods, heat waves, droughts and rising sea levels.

“We are disappointed … that the developed countries are in the process of locking in low ambitions” for slowing climate change, Mira Mehrishi, head of India’s delegation in Doha, told a news conference at the Nov. 26-Dec. 7 talks among 200 nations.

“Many developed countries are not … concentrating on their main problem, which in general is energy,” Brazil’s delegation leader Andre Correa do Lago said.