UNITED NATIONS -- Intimations from Russia and Japan that an international climate deal may have to wait until 2018 or 2020 were blasted last week by a senior Grenadian official representing 42 island nations.

Joseph Gilbert, Grenada's minister for the environment, took on negotiators from Japan and Russia who have reportedly been saying 2015 is an unrealistic deadline for completing an international accord to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Gilbert, on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States, was critical of those who would throw in the towel before the U.N. Climate Change Conference convenes in Durban, South Africa, later this month. He said talk of a delay is "reckless and irresponsible."

"If we allow this to happen, global warming problems are going to worsen and the impact on a country like Grenada will be devastating," he said in a statement. "We are very likely to see in Grenada, the Caribbean, the Pacific, Africa and elsewhere, more frequent droughts like we had in 2010, stronger hurricanes like hurricane Ivan, and rapidly increasing sea levels, to name a few examples."

Gilbert's statement asserted that Japan and Russia "are promoting a delay" until 2018 or 2020. Neither nation's mission to the United Nations returned calls seeking confirmation that this is their position.

Australia and Norway want a 2015 deadline

Gilbert went on to claim that neither Russia nor Japan intends to honor commitments under the Kyoto Protocol after 2012. Extending Kyoto after 2012 is a key agenda item in Durban, where many believe the 1992 international treaty will face its sternest test yet.

"What this will do is ruin the Kyoto Protocol, wreck the international carbon market, and undermine the credibility of the legally binding international climate regime that has taken the world more than 20 years to build," he said.

Australia and Norway, meanwhile, have been arguing for making 2015 the deadline for a new international pact during talks in Durban. This point has been taken up by Connie Hedegaard, the European climate commissioner, who told reporters in Brussels last week that she favors developing a "road map" that would lead to a deal no later than 2015.

Hedegaard told Agence France-Presse last week that "three years should be enough" to draft and finalize a new pact to limit global greenhouse gas emissions.

"Between now and 2015, we should agree on the more detailed things in this road map, but already we should agree on the principles and the timetable," Hedegaard said, according to AFP.

The talks in Durban are scheduled to take place under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change from Nov. 28 to Dec. 9.

Sullivan is based in New York.