Courtesy of the @tcktcktck, this is the most socially responsible, fair and intelligent answer to international emissions targets there is. India's Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Jairam Rames, has laid out India's expectations for at the latest round of climate discussion in Bonn, Germany. Specifically, he:

.....reiterated India’s position on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities – a principle that the entire global community has enshrined in UNFCCC concluded in 1992 at the historic Rio Summit. He said that India was for fixing per capita emission limits of countries. He said that India’s per capita emission level was low at 1.2 tonne of carbon dioxide as compared to 20.6 tonne in US, 20 tonne in Canada, 9.8 tonne in UK and Germany, 9.9 tonne in Japan. He said that under circumstances (sic) India was not committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and have already assured that its per capita emission would never exceed that of the developed countries. The developing countries have the right to take up development projects to fight poverty , he said.

And this is the entire point. The United States has been prominent through the years attempting to unload it's responsibilities on developing nations like China and India, but let's be clear. The US has a third the population of China or India and it produces more than double the per capita emissions of other developed nations like the UK and Japan. To date, they have fallen short on every side of the equation, and this points to the heart of the matter.

The entire issue of 'who needs to cut emissions and how much' is a red herring that has disabled legitimate action for years. We know the atmospheric level of carbon that needs to be maintained. Divide that by population and you have your per capita figure. Those countries falling under it (the developing world) have room to grow. Those of us above it are looking more and more like the morbidly obese heading for a tenth helping at the buffet table.

The math couldn't be more clear, from every perspective.