The United States today unveiled a $350-million multinational effort to help provide clean energy technology to developing countries, including India, to curb greenhouse gas emissions and reduce global warming. The Climate Renewable and Efficiency Deployment Initiative (Climate REDI) was unveiled at an event on the sidelines of the 12-day climate summit, attended by US Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.
Chu said the project was aimed at offering solar energy and Light Emitting Diodes (LED) lanterns to those without access to electricity, providing an alternative to expensive and polluting kerosene lamps.
“We want to turn on the lights where people live, but in a way that does not contribute to climate change. We need to make sure the lights we put on the market adhere to certain standards,” Chu said.
Underlining that Indian companies have been “pioneers” in development of low-cost pharmaceutical technology, which is now being used widely in Africa, Ramesh said, “I see no reason why we cannot emerge as world leaders in low- cost technology in the next five to six years with the help of our American counterparts.”
“We believe technology holds the key. I hope at some stage we will be contributing to the initiative,” he said.
The US share of the programme will amount to $85 million, with the rest coming from Australia, Britain, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland.
The initiative would also provide investment and technical assistance in other forms of renewable energy including wind, hydro and geothermal projects.
Ramesh noted the development followed “a very important agreement” signed by US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on November 24 for development of clean energy.
“We are partnering the US in a variety of initiatives. We have launched the Indian National Network for Comprehensive Climate Change Assessment,” he said. The network consists of 127 research institutions in various countries where, 250 research scientists will be involved in making annual assessment of the impact of climate change on the Indian economy and different regions, which will be followed by appropriate intervention.
Noting that India’s emission intensity was already very low, Ramesh outlined the country’s plan to further reduce its emission intensity by 20-25 per cent by 2020, for which technology will be very important.
Ramesh said renewable energy already accounts for around 8 per cent of power generating capacity and New Delhi’s objective is to double it by 2020.
