As reported by Bloomberg:

China, India and other developing countries probably won’t be required to take on legally binding commitments to cut their greenhouse-gas emissions under a new climate-change treaty, a United Nations official said today…

The U.S. has refused to join the 1997 Kyoto accord in part because China and other rapidly emerging economies aren’t required under the treaty to make the same pollution cuts as industrialized nations. The U.S. and China are the world’s largest emitters of global warming pollution.

China and other developing countries say they shouldn’t be required to meet the same standard as developed countries because they are in the early stages of trying to fuel economic growth to pull billions of people out of poverty. The European Union and environmentalists agree, though they say they want to see stronger efforts from the countries in a new climate accord.

You see the vicious circle? “We won’t do it because they won’t do it”. Somebody needs to take the lead. One EU negotiator has gone so far as to say China need not make carbon cut commitments, but rather improve energy efficiency. Shouldn’t the two go hand in hand? China is building a coal power plant per week — energy efficiency will not remove the harmful environmental effect of that much burning fossil fuel.

Am I being unfairly bitter, or do I have a point?