New Delhi: India has many opportunities to adopt clean technologies and control greenhouse gas emissions, US ambassador Richard Verma said on Monday.
“We know that India is working hard on its proposed nationally determined contribution, and we very much look forward to seeing it when it is ready,” Verma told delegates at an industry seminar on the business case for climate action. “We’re not the only ones that are interested. India’s size, economic growth projections, and already significant greenhouse gas emissions means there is tremendous interest around the world regarding what India will do.”
An international summit in Paris in December will see nations try hammer out a new climate deal. India is expected to play a significant role as it is developing rapidly and is among the top five emitters of greenhouse gases in the world.
“There will be countless opportunities to utilize cleaner technologies that are more energy and cost efficient,” Verma said, even as prime minister Narendra Modi’s government seeks to implement its Make in India initiative and the Swachh Bharat campaign and works toward the goal of 175,000 MW of clean, renewable energy by 2022.
“Designing and producing these technologies will take vision and innovation,” Verma said. “But they can have a profound impact on the overall goals of upgrading India’s infrastructure.”
The global market is increasingly searching for cleaner, more efficient, and advanced technologies to address climate change and thus the innovations that India use to become smarter, cleaner, more productive and more profitable should be attractive to the global community as well, he said.
On the contentious issue of technology transfer, Verma said the US wants to share its best technology and practices with India while at the same time taking care of concerns regarding intellectual property rights.
Verma said the US recognizes that it shares responsibility for the current climate-change problem. “We are a major industrialized country that has been emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases for many decades,” he said. “There is absolutely no denial of that reality by President (Barack) Obama, and certainly not from me personally. Because the United States recognizes our role in creating the present situation, we are working hard to address it, both domestically and in the international community.”
