The new targets will be consistent with an annual growth rate of 8 to 9 per cent for India's GDP, Ramesh said.

He said that in Copenhagen India will stick to its long-standing commitment to keep per capita greenhouse gas emissions below those of developed nations - and would not agree to any internationally binding cuts.

'This notion that India is intransigent on mitigation is crap. We are mitigating and mitigating considerably to save our forests and our rivers. But for an international agreement, the developed world has to demonstrate its seriousness much more credibly than it has done so far,' Ramesh told the paper.