New Delhi: India's efforts to build a consensus at the UN conference on Climate Change suffered a setback on October 24 with the major polluter United States refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which calls for the reduction of Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

"It (Kyoto protocol) is only an action on paper. We cannot meet the commitment targets," senior US climate negotiator Harlan L Watson told reporters in New Delhi.

Signing the Kyoto Protocol would impinge on US economy, he said adding, "any measure which hurts the US economy will have global ripples."

However, Watson said the US was committed to work with other nations, especially developing countries, for reducing GHG emissions and clean technology through bilateral partnerships.

Kyoto Protocol envisages reduction of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 5.2 per cent by the year 2012, to bring it below the 1990 levels.

Listing out the support it was extending for the cause, particularly to the developing world, Watson said the US in its 2003 budget supports significant funding for science and technology, research, development and transfer through bilateral international initiatives on climate change which run into several million dollars.

Watson said, over the past year the US was engaged in bilateral partnerships with several countries including India, China, Japan, European Union, Australia, Canada and several Central American countries as it is committed to address the issue change effectively.

PTI