While the new pact, to be finalised by 2015, will for the first time bring India and China under the ambit of a legal mechanism guiding emission cuts, the accord will go into effect only from 2020.

The pact on tackling climate change ~ the agreement on which came after hard negotiations that ran 36 hours beyond schedule ~ must be completed by 2015, and talks on the new legal deal covering all countries will begin next year, when the Kyoto Protocol expires.

Under the compromise, while India and China agreed to bring themselves under a governing treaty, the developed nations agreed to a second commitment period under Kyoto Protocol, putting to rest concerns that they would walk away from commitments once the 1997 treaty expires in 2012.

The Kyoto Protocol remains the only legally-binding treaty for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and India had batted hard for its revival at the 194-party conference here. The Kyoto Protocol sets binding targets for 37 industrialised nations and the EU to slash carbon emissions to 5 per cent below the 1990 levels by 2012.

Up to now, China and India have been exempted from any constraints because they are developing countries, while the USA has opted out of the Kyoto Protocol.

During the conference, which was originally scheduled to close on Friday, the EU had pushed hard for a “roadmap” to a new, legally-binding treaty against fierce resistance from India and China, whose delegates argued that mandatory cuts would slow their growth and condemn millions to poverty. “Am I to write a blank cheque and sign away the livelihoods and sustainability of 1.2 billion Indians, without even knowing what the EU ‘roadmap’ contains,” asked environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan. “Please do not hold us hostage,” she said. The final text of the Durban Conference said parties would “develop a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force”. That compromise averted the use of “legally-binding”.