The Government today assured that India's long-term interests in climate change would be protected and made it clear that New Delhi would not undertake legally binding commitments on absolute greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

This was stated by Environment and Forest Minister Mrs Jayanthi Natarajan in the Rajya Sabha while replying to clarifications on her statement on the recently concluded United Nations Climate Change summit held at Durban.

Natarajan also said that the Government was also committed to the social- economic development of country and it would be protected. She said the Durban conference did not imply that India had to take binding commitments to reduce its emission in absolute terms in 2020.

Earlier, seeking clarifications, most of the members asked the Government to come out with more details on the funding pattern for the proposed Green Climate Fund. The leader of the Opposition in the House Mr Arun Jaitley alleged that there had been a diversion in the Government's stand on question of equity.