(Editorial - Graphic Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

Officials in India gave the world an honest assessment of the challenges presented to those who are truly interested in addressing climate change — as opposed to those who just enjoy political preaching and picking winners and loser. Ahead of this weekend’s Group of 20 summit in Rome, India’s federal environment minister said rich countries (that would be us) should acknowledge their “historic responsibility” for emissions and protect the interests of vulnerable and developing nations. Bhupender Yadav said India is committed to “being part of the solution,” but a United Nations-backed report shows the country has “significant room” for more ambitious goals in reducing greenhouse gases.

India is among the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters and the world’s second-largest user of coal. They have a lot of it, and as a rapidly developing nation, they have found it to be a relatively inexpensive driver of their progress. Those of us in the U.S. can hardly blame them. We’ve had our chance and are now pretending other nations have a responsibility to stunt their own.

Rameshwar Prasad Gupta, India’s top environmental official, accurately represented the choice presented if India is left to its own devices: compromise on development or rely on dirty fuels. It is unfair of those nations that have had nearly 200 years to pollute at-will to ask developing nations to address climate change without giving them the tools to do so while still serving the needs of their citizens.

But, as our own U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., has pointed out on many occasions, if we are truly interested in solving the problem, we have the resources and ability to do something about it. We have the research facilities and money to develop solutions. And — again, if the goal is to reduce carbon emissions and not to punish victims of a domestic political agenda — we have the ability to SHARE those solutions.

Certainly the folks in Washington, D.C., would have to rearrange their priorities to send the necessary funding to interested research institutions (West Virginia University’s National Research Center for Coal and Energy comes to mind), and develop the channels and oversight for implementation of those solutions. But doing so SHOULD present few challenges.

If there was a will, they would find a way.