While a great-to-have, green energy doesn't always have to be about the environment. The combination of energy independence plus sound financial sense is a good reason as well. Moving beyond the old oil based economy isn't such a bad idea for other countries either though we all know how hard it is for countries to change.
"We believe India is innovative and entrepreneurial enough to figure out how to deal with climate change while continuing to lift people out of poverty and develop at a rapid rate," she said Saturday in Mumbai.
"We need to get our act together," said Gauri Singh, joint secretary in India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, which was set up 26 years ago, "because India is growing faster than anyone can imagine. Renewable energy will have to supplement conventional power supply.
"Our priority is to achieve energy security and self-reliance. Climate change is not the main driver for renewable energy in India, it is a co-benefit," she added, echoing a debate in the United States, where renewable energy is being sold less as a way to save the planet than as a way to create new "green collar" jobs.
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