Do China's carbon cuts leave India isolated?

New Delhi: When a Chinese delegation visited Delhi last month, and signed an agreement with India on climate change, many didn't agree. They pointed out that an association with China doesn't make sense. After all, India's greenhouse emissions are just a fifth of China's.

And then, China declared new energy-efficiency targets for itself on Thursday, leading to concerns that India is now going to face huge pressure to follow suit.

But the Indian government continues to insist that the two emerging economies will stand together at the Copenhagen Climate Summit. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh is in China to discuss a common strategy.

"We will not budge from our position of not accepting legally binding cuts... neither will we agree to a peak year for emissions, but above this, we will exercise greater flexibility in talks to ensure a favourable outcome," he says.

Climate experts say one shouldn't read too much into China's announcement.

"One must understand that what China has done is announce carbon intensity cuts per unit of GDP... that's very different from saying we accept legally binding cuts.

India should not be afraid," says Sunita Narain, who is on the PM's Council on Climate Change.