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Greater efficiency in energy use is what India needs to strive for as it balances environmental sustainability and economic growth.
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Different countries have different priorities depending on their state of economic progress. Governments, especially in major emerging economies, are forced to strike a balance between domest ic compulsions ” poverty alleviation, for instance ” and policies that help combat climate change.

Responsible and responsive policymaking will surely have to take into account threat perceptions of climate change; but that can hardly qualify to be any country s single point agenda. If we accept sustainable growth and development as the way forward, it subsumes the climate change issues.

At the same time, we cannot ignore the inherent contradiction in the expression ˜sustainable growth . Growth essentially involves exploiting natural resources for human benefit and countries have to strike a delicate balance between environmental sustainability and economic growth. It is easier said than done.

The adverse effects of climate change are but research in the area of ˜adaptation and mitigation seem to have taken a backseat. To Don t s are increasingly being professed, such as for instance, reduction in use of cars.