India on Wednesday rejected calls to announce a net zero carbon emissions target and said that it was more important for the world to lay out a pathway to reduce such emissions and avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures.

India, the world’s third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the United States, is under pressure to announce plans to become carbon neutral by mid-century or thereabouts at next week’s climate conference in Glasgow.

But environment secretary R.P.Gupta told reporters that announcing net zero was not the solution to the climate crisis.