SIR - I am surprised Coun Taylor (T&A, November 8) thinks the UK figure of two per cent of the world's harmful emissions is insignificant. If his mortgage rate increased by that figure or his salary was so cut he might have another view.

While the UK produces more than two per cent of global carbon emissions we are less than one per cent of the world population and so are each responsible for ten tonnes per year.

China produces only three tonnes per person and in India it is barely over one tonne. The United States and Europe produce more than 40 per cent of the world's carbon emissions, double the 20 per cent from India and China.

Coun Taylor might reflect on the fact that Delhi, Shanghai and other cities have insisted that all public transport is powered by compressed natural gas, slashing the emissions of nitrous oxide, one of the climate change gases.

Even Ken Livingstone has not been able to be so effective and we have little to crow about.

Keith Thomson, Heights Lane, Bradford