"Legally mandated measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are likely to have significant adverse impacts on GDP growth of developing countries, including India," Environment Ministry Secretary Pradipto Ghosh said.
He said this in turn would have "serious implications for our poverty alleviation programmes".
Germany, which will host the summit from June 6 to June 8, has called for a statement limiting worldwide temperature rise this century to 2 degree Celsius and cuts to global greenhouse emissions to 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.
Maintaining that legal mandates on greenhouse gas mitigation in any form would impact the country's growth, Ghosh said "this is not the path we wish to pursue."
"We are a responsible country and take a variety of sustainable projects to ensure energy efficiency at all levels," he said.
Chances of a consensus on the issue during the summit are remote with the US rejecting the idea of mandatory emission targets and the call for G-8 nations to raise energy efficiency.
