The leaders of the G8 industrialized nations met in Japan last week to, among other things, hammer out plans to reduce carbon emissions.

They also invited the leaders of some third world countries to attend the summit as well, notably India and China. Very delicately they invited those countries to agree in principle to some emission reductions guidelines as well, but that went nowhere.

"Sustained and accelerated economic growth is critical for all developing countries and we cannot for the present even consider quantitative restrictions on our emissions," said the Indian prime minister.

India and China are, of course, also two of the world's leading polluters.