US Elections: Republican Marco Rubio says India, China still polluting at historic levels

Any steps by the US towards addressing the challenge posed by climate change is unlikely to have an impact, as India and China would still be continuing at historic levels, leading Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio said on Thursday.

"You know what passing those laws would have -- what impact it would have on the environment? Zero, because China is still going to be polluting and India is still going to be polluting at historic levels," Florida Senator Marco Rubio said during the course of the last Republican presidential debate in Miami, Florida.

"I am in favour of a clean environment. I want this to be a safe and clean place, but these laws some people are asking us to pass will do nothing for the environment and they will hurt and devastate our economy," he said responding to a question on climate change.

America, he said, is just a country and not the planet. "Countries like India and China are more than making up in carbon emissions for whatever we could possibly cut," he said. "If the climate is changing and one of the reasons is because the climate has always been changing. There's never been a time when the climate has not changed. I think the fundamental question for a policymaker is, is the climate changing because of something we are doing and if so, is there a law you can pass to fix it?" he said.

Ohio Governor John Kasich said he believes the US contributes to climate change. "But, I don't think it has to be an either you're for some environmental stringent rules or you're not going to have any jobs. The fact is, you can have both," he said.

"In our state, we've reduced emissions by 30%. But let me tell you also what we're trying to do. We want all the sources of energy. We want to dig coal, but we want to clean it when we burn it. We believe in natural gas. We believe in nuclear power," he said and also advocated solar energy, wind energy, efficiency, renewable matter.

"It doesn't mean because you pursue a policy of being sensitive to the environment, because we don't know how much humans actually contribute. It is important we develop renewables. Battery technology can unleash an entirely different world.

"So the fact is that you can have a strong environmental policy at the same time that you have strong economic growth and they are not inconsistent with one another," he said.