New Delhi, July 18 (ANI): U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel B. Poneman said on Monday that there is nothing inconsistent in nuclear suppliers' guidelines and added that the bilateral cooperation between the US and India is on the right track.
Interacting with students of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi, Poneman expressed confidence about Washington and New Delhi cooperatiing and coordinating effectively on bilateral matters concerning science and energy.
"There is nothing indeed inconsistent between what has been happening in the nuclear suppliers guidelines and bilateral cooperation between the US and India. That cooperation was enabled by the 123 agreement signed between the two sides. That agreement in turn anticipates a very full degree of cooperation between our two sides. Indeed the reprocessing consent agreement between our two nations concludes six month ahead of times and has only ever been two concluded twice before between the United States and any other party- Japan and European Union. So I do not think there is any other basis for a charge of betrayal," said Poneman.
Dwelling on America's stand on the Kyoto Protocol, Poneman said alternative mechanisms would help reach expected global outcomes.
"We have been trying through the process since then through Copenhagen, which made some progress in Cancun which creates mechanism for greater transparency, efficiency, investments in forestation issues and so forth and provide a path forward and I think we are going to continue working through that process coming out of Cancun and moving to Durban to see what kind of further progress we can make. Even at the Kyoto Protocol I think runs through its natural course and seem unlikely to find sufficient consensus, moving forward. I think we will have to find alternative mechanisms that can produce global outcomes that we are looking for," said Poneman.
A stand-off on the Kyoto Protocol appears inevitable in the run up to the year-end UN climate conference in Durban, as key global players have failed to find common ground.
At the Berlin ministerial meet held in early July, several industrialised countries reiterated their reluctance to accept emission reduction targets for a second commitment period. However, they indicated willingness to preserve the Protocol's basic form in some form.
Poneman noted renewable energy is a potentially viable field, but the challenge is to attract private capital.
"There are as I said, and as president Obama has been very clear, tremendous economic opportunities and growth opportunities to be found in renewable energy. Part of our challenge frankly has been in coaxing private capital off the sidelines to invest in the very potentially lucrative opportunities. But the opportunities are new and novel and it creates a level of risk that commercial banks are always accustomed to embracing," said Poneman.
He added it is important to restrict 'leakage out of the civil nuclear side' to prevent nuclear terrorism.
"I think if we are truly trying to get our arms around nuclear terrorism, we have got to make sure that there is not enough leakage out of the civil nuclear side and in that respect I would like to flag President Obama's comments in Prague in April 2009 where he recalled for a new international framework for peaceful nuclear cooperation, that would make sure that as countries go down the road of development of their own domestic nuclear power capabilities that it does in a way that it minimises spread of those technologies such as enrichment and reprocessing that could limit proliferation risks," said Poneman.
Poneman is in India as a part of delegation for the crucial Indo-US Strategic Dialogue to be led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
A host of issues like counter- terrorism, bilateral economic ties and cooperation in the field of civil nuclear energy will be discussed and attended by top American officials. (ANI)
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