German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) speaks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a joint news conference in New Delhi October 30, 2007. Merkel urged India, one of the world's biggest polluters, to do more to combat climate change on Tuesday, saying her country was willing to help New Delhi make progress.
(Photo Source: REUTERS)

NEW DELHI (Reuters): German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged India, one of the world's biggest polluters, to do more to combat climate change on Tuesday, saying her country was willing to help New Delhi make progress.

Merkel, a former environment minister who has pushed global warming to the top of her international agenda, said rich nations and emerging economies needed to strike a balance over the amount of responsibility they need to shoulder to prevent climate change and not fight over it.

"We have to prove that we are willing to strike a balance," Merkel told business leaders in New Delhi during a four-day visit to India. "Multilateral agreements are of the essence."

Germany could help India become a more efficient user of energy by sharing technology to avoid "mistakes we made in the industrial countries," she said, speaking through a translator.

"Climate change, beyond the substantive issue that it is, is a very good issue for us to learn to shoulder common responsibilities," she said.

Emerging economies like China and India, also major polluters, are opposed to strict new environmental regulations or energy constraints as they fear such steps could strangle their economic growth. They demand that industrialized nations, traditionally the chief polluters, bear the brunt of emission cuts.

Scientists say climate change is expected to have a serious impact in South Asia as the region depends on monsoon rains and Himalayan glacier-fed rivers, and has a long coastline. Receding glaciers could jeopardize water supplies for hundreds of millions of people and rising sea levels could menace cities such as Mumbai and Kolkata, as well as neighboring Bangladesh.