'Biden administration could use US firms in India to push clean energy adoption'

A senior US official suggested that the United States could use the power of American private sector companies to try to drive clean energy initiatives in countries, notably like India.

Speaking at virtual briefing for international journalists organised by the Foreign Press Centre of the US State Department on combating the climate crisis, Gina McCarthy, the National Climate advisor to President Joe Biden said that the United States “should be using the power” of its private sector as well as public sector investments to try to drive clean energy initiatives in India.

McCarthy clarified that the aim of the Biden administration is not to cajole India into adopting clean energy technologies but rather, through US companies operating in the subcontinent, allow India and other countries to see the underlying cost-saving benefits of a clean energy economy plus improved public health.

"Our aim is to advance clean energy to the extent that it becomes the preferred alternative, where it becomes less and less expensive, mandates are no longer necessary and it becomes the future that everybody demands,” she said.

US officials believe that India’s own commitments to a clean energy economy potentially opens the way for more green power initiatives in the subcontinent. This could leave India potentially open to being a major beneficiary for new advances in US clean power such as green hydrogen, better carbon capture use technology and the next generation of nuclear power.

“We are providing incentives for our businesses, both here and abroad, in kind – to share the most innovative technologies that they have made available and to be advancing those in other countries,” McCarthy said.

Within the United States, the existing Biden administration's private sector prerogative is said to be to encourage American companies to move away from investments in coal or investments in natural gas. While the US government does not have a mandate to press private American companies to push clean energy technologies in other nations, the Biden administration does view American private sector companies as quasi-ambassadors of American values.

“We do work with them to try to make sure that their work internationally reflects the values of the United States of America as well as our influence– in terms of where technologies are heading and where the opportunities lie,” McCarthy said.