An Indian official on Sunday complained about U.S. pressure on India to curb its greenhouse gas emissions, but U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton emerged from their talks upbeat about a solution, Reuters reported.
"There is simply no case for the pressure that we, who have among the lowest emissions per capita, face to actually reduce emissions," Jairam Ramesh, India's minister of state for environment, told Clinton in their talks.
"And as if this pressure was not enough, we also face the threat of carbon tariffs on our exports to countries such as yours," he added in a statement he made to Clinton in private, repeated to journalists and then handed out to the media.
The comments took some of the shine off an event that Clinton staged at a "green" building outside New Delhi to show the potential of energy-saving technologies.
The red brick building, built by India's ITC tobacco and hotels conglomerate, maximizes natural light and its glass lets in light but not heat, which respectively reduce the need for artificial light and air-conditioning.
Making her first trip to India as secretary of state, Clinton was, however, upbeat about bridging U.S.-Indian differences on how to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.
"We had a very fruitful discussion today," Clinton told reporters after a one-hour discussion with Ramesh. "We have many more areas of agreement than perhaps had been appreciated."