NUSA DUA (Indonesia), Dec 12: India on Wednesday warned future generations faced disaster unless developed countries committed to extensive cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions after Kyoto Protocol commitments expire in 2012.

Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal voiced concern at the UN talks on the Indonesian island of Bali where the United States and other industrialised economies are fending off demands to show they are willing to slash their carbon emissions.

“We are concerned at the attempts to create a new framework which may result in the dilution of specific and timebound commitments on emission reductions by developed countries,” Sibal, a senior leader in India’s ruling Congress party, told the conference.

“This should not be allowed to happen. Any such dilution would have disastrous and irreversible consequences for future generations,” he said.

The Dec 3-14 Bali talks are tasked with setting down a “roadmap” for negotiations culminating in a new deal on tackling climate change beyond 2012.

A key issue deadlocking the meeting is whether this blueprint will include a commitment by industrialised countries that they believe a cut of between 25-40 percent in their emissions by 2020, compared to 1990 levels, should guide these negotiations.These figures are only indicative and not a target, being described in draft text as an “ambition.” But they carry political weight as they reflect a scenario sketched by the UN’s climate experts for limiting global warming to around two degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels.The European Union says a clear reference to the 25-40 per cent cut will show that rich countries want to negotiate seriously and thus will help encourage a quid pro quo from big emerging economies, including China and India.

United States, Japan, Canada, Australia and others are opposed, saying that they do not want to pre-empt what will unfold at the negotiations, delegates say.

US President George W. Bush has rejected the Kyoto Protocol, arguing it is unfair as it does not require emerging giants -- the major polluters of tomorrow -- to make targeted curbs on their own emissions.

Sibal said India was doing its part to reduce carbon output and had already vowed never to produce more greenhouse gas per capita than rich nations.

Pointing to the net rise in gas emissions since 1990, Sibal said that while developed nations had claimed to lead the fight against global warming, “the figures tell a very different story.” “The Earth’s atmosphere is a common resource, yet more than three-fourths of the present stock of carbon dioxide has been emitted by developed countries which account for less than 20 per cent of the world’s population,” he said.—AFP