With the Earth Summit coming in afortnight, India has sent the right signal by ratifying Kyoto Protocol, the roadmap to containing emissions of green house gases(GHG).

Environmentalists in the country have welcomed the decision.

Sunita Narain, Director, Center For Science and Environment said that India has sent a good signal by taking the lead in the region and showing that multilateral approach is better than unilateral.

The Kyoto Protocol requires the developed countries to reduce their emissions to an average of 5.2 percent below the 1990 levelsby 2012. Countries which are a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) adopted the protocol in 1997. But the United States has failed to acknowledge the treaty because it fears it could clash with their economic growth.

Subodh Sharma, an adviser to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, said that India didn't have to commit anything right now, adding that the ratification means India has confirmed its willingness to be bound by it in future.

As a developing country, India is not required to reduce the emissions of GHG under the Kyoto Protocol. Rather, it is expected to benefit from transfer of technology and additional foreign investments into sectors like renewable energy, energy generation and afforestation project when the Kyoto Protocol comes into force.

Accession to the Kyoto Protocol will also enable the country totake up clean technology projects with external assistance in accordance with national sustainable development priorities.

India's decision is significant because it will host the 8th Conference of Parties to the UNFCC in New Delhi later this year.

The US stand has put a question mark on the protocol's relevance because it can come into force only after at least 55 parties to the convention -- signifying 55 percent emission -- ratify it.

So far, only 77 countries accounting for 36 percent emission have ratified the document. Leena Srivastava, leader of an ecological group said that although it (the protocol) may not go through with the stand the United States has taken, India has aptly demonstrated commitment to global environmental issue.