Climate accord: India to be an active player

India has said it is ready to play an 'active' role in crafting a new global accord on combatting climate change.

"We are not part of the problem but we want to be part of the solution,"  Environment minister Jairam Ramesh said, ahead of a U N climate summit of 100 world leaders beginning in New York on Tuesday.

Ramesh said it was wrong to blame India for the deadlock on the global climate change talks and that it was prepared to be an 'active player in working towards an agreement'.

India's national climate plan envisages voluntary mitigation measures by 2020. It includes mandatory fuel efficiency standards, renewable energy initiatives, clean coal technologies, and lower methane farming.

India is, however, firmly against erecting trade barriers against a country that does not accept limits on its carbon emissions.

The US House of Representatives passed a bill this summer setting the first mandatory limits on greenhouse gases and impose trade penalties on countries that do not cap their emissions.

The UN summit is intended to nudge countries to reach an accord in the Copenhagen climate conference in December. It is also aimed at putting pressure on the US and other developed countries to commit to cuts and provide funds to help developing nations adopt new, clean technologies and take other measures to combat climate change.

China and India have long been blamed by the US for rejecting mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases. The Bush administration had rejected the 1997 Kyoto Protocol for cutting emissions of global warming gases saying it excluded 'major polluters' China and India. Ramesh said, "it beats me as to how a country that accounts for less than 5 per cent of the world's greenhouse gases (India) is painted as the one that is preventing the deal in a country that accounts for 20 per cent of the world's greenhouse gases."

He, however, called the Waxman-Markey Bill a step forward as it takes on quantitative emission cuts by 2020.