US-China climate deal not so ambitious: India

India was today not too impressed by the "mutual" climate deal reached between the US and China, saying it was "not so ambitious" but welcomed the American decision to cut carbon emissions with immediate effect as a "good beginning" in dealing with climate change.
"Whatever intentions have been declared by the US and China is a beginning but it is not as ambitious as people wanted it to be," Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters here when asked to comment on the deal reached earlier this week.
He termed it as a "mutual consent" between the US and China, the world's top carbon emitters.

At the same time, he said, "I welcome that the US has declared its intensions of cutting emissions with immediate effect."
Noting that the US was not part of 1997 Kyoto Protocol and had not accepted the restrictions under it, the Minister said, "But now if they themselves want to go towards emission cuts path, then it is a good beginning."
India's official reaction came two days after the US and China reached a deal on climate change providing for ambitious actions to limit greenhouse gases.

Javadekar said many people were expecting that the US will take in more cuts than declared recently or China will declare its peaking much earlier than it did. "But that has not happened," he said.

"...Now they have taken binding cut on their own. It is a beginning which the world will be watching as the US, China and Europe are the major polluters," he said.
He said "the world will be watching" whether the US will take the emission cuts immediately or not.