India and China Sign Their First-Ever Climate Change Agreement

India and China, countries which combined account for approximately all of the world's population, have come together to sign their first-ever agreement to join forces to fight climate change, and to create a unified front during international negotiations on a climate change treaty. The two nations have both rejected a call for binding caps on carbon emissions, but with these agreement, certainly seem to be trying to find the best way to go continue expanding economically while keeping focused on environmentalism. From UPI (via TerraDaily):

According to a release, the pact would strengthen cooperation between the two countries on mitigation, programs, projects, technology development and demonstrations relating to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The areas of cooperation would include energy conservation efficiency, renewable energies, clean coal, methane recovery and utilization, afforestation and sustainable management of forests and ecosystems, transportation and a sustainable habitat, it said.

By joining together, India and China can share technology and innovations to that both have the best conservation knowledge possible. As well, the two nations spoke of developing a position for December's Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change, at which each party has stated its hopes for comprehensive agreements that don't interfere with a developing nation's ability to, well, develop. It seems that both nations like the framework of the Kyoto Protocol, and will most likely form a position that calls for a rollover of many of that agreement's ideas. As we're only about seven or eight weeks out from Copenhagen, we won't have to wait long to find out how that results.