Beijing: India has asked developing countries to maintain steadfast unity on the issue of climate change to ensure that developed nations take due responsibility for scaling down greenhouse gas emissions.

With the world gearing up to meet for a major climate summit in Copenhagen this December, union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said that developing countries were not responsible for concentration of green house gases in the atmosphere and hence Western nations should take lead in combating climate change.

Azad said that the countries of the 'south', whose per capita emissions are still very low, should unite to ensure that these obligations are met by the developed countries.

"We, the countries of the south should maintain steadfast unity to ensure that these obligations are met by the developed countries," he said while addressing the 5th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights (APCRSHR).

"The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has specifically recognised that parties should take action to protect the climate system on the basis of equity and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities," he said.

He said that accordingly the developed country parties should take the lead in combating climate change and the adverse effects thereof.