India won’t sacrifice growth for environment

India on Sunday called for a ''just and equitable agreement'' to fight global warming, a day ahead of the Paris Summit on Climate Change.

As more than 100 world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gather at the summit to draw up a long-term plan to limit carbon emissions, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said India would call for an agreement that ''balances environment and growth''.

The summit aims to reach an agreement to limit average global warming to two degrees Celsius over pre-Industrial Revolution levels by curbing fossil fuel emissions.

Javdekar also called on developed countries to provide carbon space to developing countries, adding that the developed world used two-thirds of the available carbon space.

''The developed world should walk the talk,'' he said.

The environment minister said it was time to think of the price of new technology and who would have to pay it.

Javadekar called US Secretary of State John Kerry's recent concerns over India's pace of climate change action ''unfair, unfortunate and untrue''.

"We've got a lot of focus on India right now to try to bring them along. India has been more cautious, a little more restrained in its embrace of this new paradigm, and it's a challenge," he was quoted as saying.

In a recent interview with a leading international business daily, Kerry had warned that India could be a "challenge" at Paris talks.