Susheel Kumar, Secretary of India's Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, said at the recent Delhi Sustainable Development Summit that his country's policy depends entirely on developed nations first meeting their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol (part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that has largely failed so far).
Why is it contingent on developed countries going first?
"[B]ecause they created the problem," he said.
That implies that India won't get serious about GHG reductions for quite some time.
Read More10 countries that may be hit hard by climate change
In response, U.S. Ambassador to India, Mr. Richard Verma, prefaced his remarks at the summit about America's commitments by saying, "We all know that developing countries are responsible for 60 percent of the world's GHGs," making it clear that the U.S. policy will also remain stuck in outdated Kyoto-thinking, requiring the emerging economies to make serious pledges to cut GHGs first.
In other words, despite both speakers bragging about measures in their countries to go green, the old divides remain firmly entrenched.
Many other speakers from all over the globe reiterated a similar mantra, highlighting great achievements in low-carbon development projects and technologies while standing clearly on one side of that developed-developing nation divide. Mr. Lars Andreas Lunde, Deputy Minister of Climate and Environment for Norway, emphasized the need to align UN Sustainable Development Goals with the any new climate change agreement, but failed to mention whether his oil-rich nation might reduce its sale of fossil fuels or support the transition to cleaner alternatives. Sort of like the local drug pusher handing out brochures on breaking addiction with one hand while selling you heroin with the other.
Read MoreObama looks to raise $2 billion in climate-change investments
So what was said that might offer more hope of solving this massive problem in our lifetime?
Unilever CEO Paul Polman gave a speech that would have been promising and inspirational coming from a member of Greenpeace, but the fact that the CEO of a company ranked No. 110 on the Forbes Global 2000 list of biggest companies in the world, was astonishing. In sum, he tied the success of his company today, and well into the future, on Unilever being an active partner in reducing GHGs, calling on all governments to put a price on carbon to ensure sufficient reductions before it's too late, saying "what business cannot measure, it cannot treasure, so don't be shy [about pricing carbon]." He also demanded truly sustainable use of natural resources, such as water and trees, because "companies who invest in sustainability have a lower cost of capital and that translates into higher profits."
Other speakers from business repeated similar calls to action; a willingness to pay a price on carbon; and similar success stories from finding new ways to make their companies more sustainable. If the summit was a microcosm of policy and action on climate change and global sustainability challenges, it was clear that the solutions might lie with smart CEOs and not with hesitant politicians.
Commentary by Terry Tamminen, former secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. He is also the president of Seventh Generation Advisors and co-founder of the R20 Regions of Climate Action. Follow him on Twitter @terrytamminen.
