Ahead of the United Nations climate summit of world leaders on Tuesday, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told reporters that India would like to be part of a solution to hammer a new global climate pact.

Mr. Ramesh said the present crisis on climate change was the “inability” of the United States to put on the table credible emissions reduction targets for 2020.

“We are not part of the problem but we want to be part of the solution,” he said.

It was wrong to blame India for the deadlock on the global climate change talks. It was prepared to be an “active player in working towards an agreement.”

Asked about India being dubbed unhelpful and stubborn, Mr. Jairam said: “Not at all. I think the world is completely wrong on this. We have got an image that is contrary to what we have been doing. The message that I am trying to convey is that we have not caused the problem of global warming but we want to be part of the solution at Copenhagen. We want to be a deal-maker, not the deal-breaker.”

India’s national climate plan envisaged voluntary mitigation measures by 2020, he said.

Mr. Ramesh and climate change expert Rajendra Pachauri also underlined the need for the U.S. to bring about a “lifestyle change” to combat climate change.

Act timely: Pachauri

Warning that the impact of climate change will make some countries “failed states,” top climatologist and chairman of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Rajendra Pachauri, said world leaders have a “sacred duty” to protect the earth.

Mr. Pachauri, while addressing a gathering of 100 leaders at the United Nations, said that heat waves, droughts, melting glaciers, loss of the Greenland ice sheet and other dangers are fast approaching.

“If all the delegates present in the gathering do not act on time, then all of us will become leaders and citizens of failed states because we would be failing in our sacred duty to protect this planet which gives life to all species,” said Mr. Pachauri, whose IPCC shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 with the former U.S. Vice-President, Al Gore.

No room for inaction

“The science leaves us with no room for inaction now,” he said. According to his estimate, around 12 countries will become “failed states” due to climate change problems like soil degradation and lack of food.