US, India comes closer against global warming

New Delhi, Apr 19 (UNI) The US today expressed willingness to work with India in developing clean technologies, a move that would help clean up the environment in the wake of growing energy demand and against the spectre of looming global warming.

Speaking at an interactive session between the US and Indian energy experts organised by FICCI here, Mr David Bohigian US Assistant Secretary of Commerce said since Indian economy is growing at more than 4 per cent, there is an urgent need for the country to plan its energy sector in a way so that it could meet the global demands of future.

Mr Bohigian was leading a delegation of 11 US companies which were here to discuss on clean energy technologies such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean coal and distributed generation.

He added that the green trade programmes offered by them are technology driven, capital intensive and result oriented.

He also added that 60 companies from Tamil Nadu had shown willingness to work with them during a simmilar interactive session organised in Chennai yesterday. However, he declined to divulge the details.

Mr Bohigian said India is one among the six partner countries of Asia Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate, a recent initiative that aims at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Talking about the business opportunities in the renewable energy sector in India, Mr Bohigian said, ''India has a huge potential in renewable energy technology and generation specially in bio-fuel generation.'' Describing the Indo-US nuclear deal as a 'historic step', he said nuclear energy is a potential source of power and added that the deal reflects that US is commited to work with India.

However, he declined to comment on the pace of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Giving an overview of India's environmental technology market, Chairman of FICCI Environment Commitee Mr Ashwin C Shroff pointed out that the market had grown by 79 per cent between 2000-2005 and is expected to grow by 92 per cent during 2005-2010. The highest growth potential, he said lies in water, waste water, waste treatment and recyling areas. By 2010, water and waste water is estimated to have 80 per cent of the total environmental technology market, while waste treatment would have 16 per cent market share, he added.

UNI