USAID Announces Partnership on Green Business Development

December 08, 2005

HYDERABAD -- The Confederation of Indian Industry’s Green Business Center (CII-GBC) based in Hyderabad and the World Resources Institute (WRI), a U.S. environmental think tank, launched a partnership to promote clean energy and environment technologies in India today. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is supporting the initiative to advance sustainable enterprises and green business solutions in India under its Global Development Alliance program.

USAID Mission Director, George Deikun announced the partnership during the CII-GBC’s Green Business Summit in Hyderabad noting that USAID is committed to “working with Indian business and government and partnering to advance sustainable energy development in India.”

Speaking at the Green Business Summit Deikun explained that the partnership would help to support the development of market-based energy efficiency services and to accelerate the development of renewable energy and clean technologies.

“The United States and India launched an Energy Dialogue in March this year. This cooperation is now an important element of the overall strategic relationship between our two countries,” said Deikun. “USAID work in the energy sector and the goals of this partnership underscore the shared vision of our two countries that economic development can walk hand-in-hand with environmental protection,” he added.

The CII-GBC partnership with WRI plans to establish new green ventures in targeted sectors within India through a program of business incubation and to organize a New Ventures Investor Forum. A voluntary green-house gas (GHG) emissions program based on WRI’s global corporate accounting standard will also be established to measure and report on GHG emissions at company, facility and project levels for industries and utilities.

The total funding for the partnership is almost $7.5 million of which USAID is contributing over $1.3 million. The balance of funding has been provided by the Indian and U.S. private sector.