PARIS/NEW DELHI: India's hardline positionin global climate talks has made it a potential villain forWestern nations as it warns that its greenhouse emissionsmostly from burning dirty coal may keep rising past the middleof the century.

Its little-known team came to Paris with a mission to forcerich nations to lead the way in curbing emissions. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi told the summit that "climate justice"meant poor nations needed "room to grow".

Such positions may have prompted U.S. Secretary of StateJohn Kerry to say that India would be a "challenge" to deal within Paris but in the corridors of the U.N. climate summit it iswinning the support of other developing nations.

These see India - already the number three greenhouseemitter behind China and the United States and likely to benumber two by 2040 - as the main champion of the rights of theglobal poor to burn more energy to grow.

Others too concede it is a just cause for India - farpoorer than China and with 300 million of its 1.25 billionpeople lacking access to electricity - and do not see signs ofintransigence that could scupper a deal.

Jennifer Morgan of the independent U.S.-based WorldResources Institute said the idea of India as a spoiler was "astorm in a teacup". "In the meeting rooms India is defendingits interests and proposing solutions" she said.

And a source at the French presidency said India wascontributing constructively "not standing on the sidelines andjust watching".

In Paris almost 200 governments are seeking an agreementthat will bind both rich and poor to limit greenhouse gasemissions beyond 2020 to try to stave off the worst effects ofglobal warming on the Earth's climate.

At the last failed summit in Copenhagen six years agoIndia stood with China in demanding more action by the rich. ButBeijing buoyed by strong economic growth since 2009 now worksmore closely with the United States leaving New Delhi as thestandard-bearer.

Fitting champion

India is in some ways a more fitting champion for the poor.Its carbon emissions were just 1.7 tonnes per capita in2011 according to World Bank data level with countries such asBelize or Armenia far below China's 6.7 tonnes and just a 10thof those of the United States.

"It's fair for India to try to protect the hundreds ofmillions of poor people in India" said Pa Ousman JarjuEnvironment and Climate Minister of Gambia.

Still India is opening a coal mine a month and is set todouble output by 2020 putting it at the forefront of apan-Asian dash to burn more of the most polluting fossil fuelwhich also happens to its most affordable and abundant.

This means that although it is promoting solar power andother renewables India's overall emissions will soar.

Ajay Mathur Director General of the Bureau of EnergyEfficiency and a senior member of the Indian delegation inParis said India's greenhouse gas emissions may grow until2050 unless new technologies are developed.

"Projections ... that go out until 2050 are still showing anincrease" he said.

While China has pledged that its emissions will peak nolater than 2030 India's national plan promises only to slow therise relative to its economic growth by then.

India's carbon dioxide emissions grew by almost 8 percentlast year according to the PBL Netherlands EnvironmentalAssessment Agency making it the biggest contributor to globalemissions growth of 0.5 percent.

By 2040 they could roughly double according to projectionsby U.S. scientists at Climate Interactive overtaking the UnitedStates.

Popular position

But India's tough position is popular at home. When Kerrymade his comment to the Financial Times last month EnvironmentMinister Prakash Javadekar angrily shot back that he was "notdoing justice to India".

"Sometimes the India team does get preoccupied by having tofend off all these attacks. But they will not buckle underfinger pointing from a small group of Western countries" ShyamSaran India's chief negotiator at the 2009 Copenhagen talkstold Reuters.

This time round Ravi Shankar Prasad a low-profilemid-level official in the environment ministry has led thenegotiating team but unlike some of his counterparts he hasavoided the limelight.

"No one man is in charge. It's a negotiating team" saidSaran.

Some delegates say India picked a fight in Paris bydismissing a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperationand Development (OECD) that suggested rich nations were on trackto deliver a promised $100 billion a year in finance by 2020.

India said the numbers were riddled with double countingand that it could only clearly identify a mere $2.2 billion.

But many developing nations are backing India's stance.

"They are doing it for all of us" said Saleemul Huq directorof the International Center for Climate Change and Developmentin Bangladesh.

India can also argue that it is doing its bit to promoterenewable energy.

Prime Minister Modi and French President Francois Hollandeon Monday unveiled an alliance of over 100 nations that seeks to

mobilise more than a trillion dollars by 2030 to harness theabundant solar power in the tropics.

Reuters