Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh today appealed the United States to better its emission reduction commitment before it was too late for the global community. Maintaining that US' response toclimate change is disappointing, Mr Ramesh expressed deep concern about the US offer to reduce carbon emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020. He said this will be a 4 per cent reduction on 1990 reference level used by Kyoto Protocol parties. Mr Ramesh further said that due to absence of domestic legislation, executive action could only achieve 14 per centreduction by 2020 on 2005 level. Meanwhile, Todd Stern, the US envoy to the UN, said that his country could only implement its 17 per cent pledge with a legislative component. Stern also expressed confidence that a mix and match of options would allow the US to fulfill its climate obligations even without comprehensive legislation in the US. Ramesh, however, said no climate change treaty was possible without having the US on board since it was the largest pre capita emitter of greenhouse gases. He said the US could provide the most finance and technology to combat climate change. Meanwhile,The talks on climate change at the Cancun meet are likely to stretch till next year as consensus continue to elude on the methodology to allow scrutiny of voluntary climate change actions of the developing nations by rich countries.