India last night rebuffed an appeal by Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, to embrace a low-carbon future in which the two countries would join to devise new ways of consuming and producing energy.

Mrs Clinton, on a five-day visit to the country, said low-carbon emissions would not jeopardise India's high economic growth rates and its goal of lifting millions of people out of poverty. She offered a technological partnership to secure the fast- growing nation's energy supplies and help boost the livelihoods of its farmers.