Clean energy programmes not moving fast enough: US Energy Secy

NEW DELHI: With energy produced being "as dirty as it was 20 years ago", the US today said the progress on clean energy was not fast enough and called for higher efficiency devices.


Addressing the Fourth Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) meet here, US Energy Secretary Steven Chu said: "Despite our efforts, progress on clean energy is not fast enough."

Calling for collaboration between the developed and developing nations for leveraging strengths and resources, Chu said the Delhi CEM should lay groundwork for faster progress.

"In power starved economies like India's, higher efficiency devices help investments in new generations to go further--expanding access to reliable power rather than using limited supply to run inefficient product," he said.

He pointed out that around the world, "we (nations) are capturing only a fraction of the energy and economic savings potential from appliance efficiency".

The International Energy Agency (IEA) in a report released at the ministerial conference, said the rapid expansion of renewable technologies is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise bleak assessment of global progress towards low-carbon energy.

"Despite much talk by world leaders, and despite a boom in renewable energy over the last decade, the average unit of energy produced today is basically as dirty as it was 20 years ago," IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven told the CEM, which brings together ministers representing countries responsible for four-fifths of global greenhouse-gas emissions.