Climate: US wants India, China to learn from its 'mistakes'

Assuring India and China that it wants them to fulfil their "legitimate aspirations" for growth, the US has said it would like the two countries to "avoid the mistakes" it had made on climate change issue.

Assuring India and China that it wants them to fulfil their "legitimate aspirations" for growth, the US has said it would like the two countries to "avoid the mistakes" it had made on climate change issue.

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Addressing a meeting of the Major Economic Forum on Energy and Climate, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to refute the impression that the US policies on climate change would restrict the growth of developing countries.

"People everywhere have a legitimate aspiration for a higher standard of living," she said on Monday.

Seventeen major countries are members of the form, which was established by US President Barack Obama early this month. Prime Minister's Special Envoy on Climate Change, Shyam Saran, is representing India at this two-day meeting.

"As I have told my counterparts from China and India, we want your economies to grow. We want people to have a higher standard of living. We just hope we can work together in a way to avoid the mistakes that we made that have created a large part of the problem that we face today," Clinton said.

At the same time, the Secretary of State cautioned: "It will be harder, not easier, if we fail to meet the challenge of climate change for all countries, particularly developing countries, to continue the growth rates that they need to sustain the increase in standard of living that they're looking for."