India to Push for Poor Nations’ Rights at Rio Environment Summit

India vowed to press richer nations to shoulder the burden of protecting the environment at a meeting in Brazil, where leaders are due to gather in June for the 20-year anniversary of an historic development summit.

India has battled efforts by the U.S. and Europe to impose legally binding emission-reduction targets on fast-growing polluters like itself and China, arguing they shouldn’t be subject to the same measures as developed nations historically responsible for the problem.

Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said India will extend that position to environmental negotiations, including Rio de Janeiro at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, known as Rio+20 in policy circles.

“Whether it’s climate change, whether it’s Rio+20, whether it’s biodiversity, at the bottom line there should be equity,” Natarajan told a conference in New Delhi today. She said that means “common but differentiated responsibilities, and that there should be an equity in all the decisions we make.”

The first Rio conference in 1992, known as the Earth Summit, drew 108 heads of state and set up the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to stabilize the rise of greenhouse gas emissions.

To contact the reporter on this story: Natalie Obiko Pearson in Mumbai at npearson7@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net.