• The “North-South” divide, signifying the differences between the more industrialised economies of the global “North” and the relatively less developed and developing countries of the global “South”, has continued to be a defining feature of global environmental politics. The “North” mostly covers the West and the developed world while the “South” category largely corresponds with the developing and poor regions. Considering geographical location, developing countries – global South – are primarily located in sub-tropical or tropical ecosystems and the developed countries – global North – occupy mainly temperate and arctic climates and ecosystems. The division between the North and the South based on their economies, political stability, technology, scientific research and other factors are very persistent. In addition to these geographical, political and economic factors, environmental politics and climate change have become a more significant issue of debate between the two regions.
• The Global North says that ail countries are equally responsible for the protection of the environment.  But the Global South has a different view. They say that it is the industrial development of the Global North that caused and is causing the environmental damage. Developing nations are on the path of progress. Therefore, the restrictions placed on the developed nations should not be made binding on the developing nations. The developing nations say that keeping their needs in mind, there should be new laws and interpretations. This argument was approved in the Earth Summit on 1992. This new principle is called “Common but different responsibility”.
• Developing countries of the global south argued that the world’s environmental problems were largely caused by the industrialised countries of the global north, and that related abatement costs should be borne by these countries. They believed environmental concerns should not be used as an excuse to impose development restrictions on countries already on the periphery of the global economic system; instead, they stated, the UN should focus on addressing poverty in their countries.
• The North, for the most part accepts that it has contributed the lion''s share in the degradation of the environment and therefore must accept greater emission cuts than the south. But it contends that since climate change poses a potential threat to the world at large, the south has to accept mandatory cuts in carbon emissions for the sake of humanity. There are also differences in opinion regarding the quantum of funds and extent of tech transfer for adaptation that the North should pay the south for moving towards a greener economy.
• According to various scholars, Sustainable Development stands on two pillars-

• • Development should observe the carrying capacity of the land, air, water, and forests which are four basic resources to sustain life over the planet. If they are used beyond their capacity to regenerate, replenish and recharge, they are lost forever
  • Development should observe inter-generational equity and justice. This would mean that the present generation does not have the right to extract out of the stock of resources that belongs to the next generation.

Road ahead

• The desire, not the need between the nations to become wealthier and prosperous has created a North-South divide. Scholars stated that the world has become a Global Village yet the Northern side of the Globe is a voracious consumer but the Southern side is constantly in misery because they lose out their resources to the rich nations of the North. It is said that one US citizen consumer’s energy is equal to 160 Tanzania or Nepalese consumers.
• It is fairly understandable that the path of sustainable development is ridden with the immense gap that exists between the North and the South states. Global negotiations and international agreements have remained unfulfilled and disappointing.