Friday, July 29 2005 16:43 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: India today (July 29, 2005) said that a US-led regional pact on environment signed by it to deal with global warming was not detrimental to the commitment made in the Kyoto Protocol.

"The regional pact is only a vision statement. We have not made any commitment on reducing greenhouse gas emission in it", Environment Minister A Raja told the Rajya Sabha emphasizing that the pact was in no way detrimental to the developing countries like India.

The Kyoto Protocol makes it very clear that there was no commitment for developing countries to reduce green house gas emission under it and India and 139 other countries are signatories to the Kyoto Protocol.

Responding to concerns of Jairam Ramesh (Cong) and Yashwant Sinha (BJP), Raja said India had not succumbed to US pressure in signing the regional pact which some members alleged was "dangerous to humanity."

US, which is one of the major greenhouse gas emitters is not a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol.

The vision statement was signed by Japan, Australia, South Korea and China apart from India and US in Laos yesterday.

It envisages working together to develop, deploy and transfer cleaner, more efficient technologies and to address national pollution reduction, energy security and climate change concerns, consistent with the principles of UN Framework Convention of Climate Change.