Carbon emissions

In the UK at the moment there's a lot of talk about carbon footprints and the like. In particular there are plans to put a carbon limit on each business (and eventually each person). I'm in favour of this on principle, but there are some pretty serious problems. The main one is that there are lot of countries out there who are pumping out a lot of shit in an attempt to get industrialised and expand. We did this once and nobody tried to put carbon limits on us, so why should they feel that it's okay for us to do it to them? If these countries don't cut back then carbon limits for the UK aren't going to make much difference to global carbon levels, but it seems so arrogant for us to say: "yes, we've been through a long period of progress and expansion and we're telling you it's not fair on the planet, so you shouldn't do it". Oh, and while you curb your progress we'll further ours, thank-you-very-much, by continuing to exploit you in other ways. What a mess...