India calls for renewable energy partnership with US

Lalit K Jha

Washington, Mar 25 (PTI) With the Obama Administration
focussing on clean and renewable energy, India has sought
partnership with the US in the field to meet the growing
challenge of climate change.

Such a partnership between the two countries, after the
civilian nuclear deal, is essential to jointly meet the
challenges of climate change, Shyam Saran, the Indian Prime
Minister's Special Envoy on Climate Change, told a meeting of
US corporate leaders organised by the US India Business
Council (USIBC).

USIBC had played a significant role in the passage of the
Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, despite tough hurdles.

Welcoming President Obama's Renewable Energy Initiative,
Saran said: "The first component of our strategy for the
future, for both Indian and US business is a renewable energy
partnership covering different technological pathways and
focussing on technology and product development."

Asserting that the world is on the cusp of an energy
revolution, Saran said it is becoming apparent that current
trends of growth of the global economy, in particular the
growth of India and China, cannot be sustained by the
accelerated depletion of fossil fuels.

"If energy is not to become a constraint on our growth --
the growth of India and the US and the global economy as a
whole, then a relatively rapid and significant shift to
renewable and non-conventional energy sources becomes
inevitable. Both climate change action and energy security
dictate this," he said.

Acknowledging the corporate leaders' significant
contribution, Saran said, "You can be justifiably proud of
what your contribution has helped accomplish -- a dramatic
transformation in Indo-US relations and the opening up of a
wide-ranging spectrum of opportunities for economic
partnership."

"The challenge before us now lies in translating these
opportunities into practical collaborative partnerships on a
scale and of a quality that befits the strategic partnership
between our two countries," he observed.

Observing that the two countries need to look beyond the
immediate compulsion of stimulating the respective economies
and evolving a more effective national and global financial
infrastructure, Saran said the business and industry leaders
of the two nations can together begin to look at the newly
emerging realities and position the two democracies to be
leaders in the new wave of creative entrepreneurship and
technological innovation that will be required to face new and
unfamiliar challenges.

Arguing that recycling must become an integral part of
the business model of the future, Saran said: "There should be
an India-US partnership on Recycling as part of our objective
of achieving resource security."

There is need to put in place technologies and facilities
that enable the efficient and cost effective recycling of an
ever larger proportion of our depleting supplies of minerals.

Indian and US business need to position themselves to
meet the demands of a new age and a new humanity that values
sustainability over excess. It means focussing consciously on
technological innovation and product development that conforms
to the emerging value system, Saran observed.

It means developing and producing goods that meet new
standards of durability and reliability. It also means more
products that are reusable, not disposable and if reuse is not
possible, then are recyclable.

"We must together set the standards for a new Age of
Sustainability, propagate concepts such as zero discharge from
chemical plants, water-positive processes in all
water-consuming industries, energy positive processes wherever
possible through re-use of heat from production and the
generation of power from waste," Saran said.

"We should explore how we could use flue gas from
coal-based power plants to produce methane which may be used
as transportation fuel. The ideal should be to create a world
in which production and consumption processes are closed
cycles with zero waste," he argued. PTI