While we can often be found extolling the virtues of South-South science, it's good to see a bit of North-South science in the mix, too. SciDev.net reports that India and the UK have announced plans to "collaborate on sustainable development projects, including conducting research on climate change together." The UK is taking the lead on the project, and this is only the first step:
UK environment minister Elliot Morley... added that China would be the next country that Britain engages with in this way, which is aimed at addressing the issue of achieving economic growth without damaging the environment.Climate change is one of the areas of collaboration identified in a joint statement issued by Tony Blair and Manmohan Singh, the prime ministers of the United Kingdom and India, during Singh's visit to the United Kingdom last year.The other areas include clean sources of energy, biotechnology and bioinformatics, nanotechnology, agriculture, and health research.
The UK, which is ranked #6 in per capita greenhouse gas emissions, has very clearly gotten religion on the subject. India, while seeing its own emissions grow, is also quite conscious of its geography. Climate disruption has a good chance of altering monsoonal rainfall patterns, with potentially nasty results, as a fluctuation of just ten percent in the monsoon rainfall amounts can trigger widespread flooding or drought.