India, Nov. 26 -- An angry Indian delegate dismissed the outcome document of the recently concluded 29th Conference of Parties (COP29) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as an "optical illusion" which had been "stage-managed" by the Azerbaijani hosts. The stage-managing of the multilateral negotiating process and the selling of optical illusions by advanced Western countries is a long-running saga of short-changing developing countries in tackling the challenge of the global climate crisis.

Up until the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009, India did not hesitate to call out Western hypocrisy and mean-minded selfishness. Its position in the climate negotiations was clear and compelling: Countries that had freely signe...