India, Japan pledge to promote more cooperation in energy sector

New Delhi, Apr 30 (ANI): India and Japan on Monday decided to intensify cooperation in energy efficiency and conservation sector as well as environmental issues.

During the fifth meeting of the India-Japan Energy Dialogue here, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yukio Edano stressed the need to expand the process of consultation between the public and private sectors to strengthen the bilateral cooperation in the energy sector, mainly in energy efficiency and conservation as well as environmental issues.

Both ministers also confirmed the need to continue the study that was conducted in 2011 concerning the list of Japan's energy-saving and environmental technologies to be supported for enhanced use of energy-saving technologies in the Indian iron and steel industry

They welcomed the ongoing cooperation for energy conservation by the Energy Conservation Center, Japan (ECCJ) with the Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA) and Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE).

They appreciated the development and dissemination of energy conservation audit manual for high energy-consuming industries such as the textile industry and the iron and steel industry through dispatch of experts and training of accepted trainees.

Both sides decided to consider the possibility of further cooperation in the establishment of statistics database in the sector concerned, including high energy-consuming industries where energy consumption have been growing in India in recent years.

Additionally, taking into consideration that the energy demand in the transport sector is increasing in proportion to the economic growth in India, they decided that they will discuss the possibility of cooperation in the said sector.

They also decided to cooperate for promotion of energy conservation in local and small-to-medium businesses. They also reconfirmed the importance of the Regional Energy Efficiency Center (REEC) projects in promoting working-level energy conservation in India. They decided to explore the possibility of establishment of a 2nd REEC in India.

Both the ministers also welcomed that the coke dry quenching equipment (CDQ) demonstration project and diesel generator fuel-switching demonstration project equipment by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) were completed in 2011.

Reiterating the importance of civil nuclear cooperation between the both countries, India and Japan on Monday affirmed the need to cooperate to enhance nuclear safety based on the experience and the lessons learned from the accident at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. (ANI)