By IANS,
New Delhi : India’s approach towards environmental growth has to keep pace with economic growth to achieve the targets of “green economy”, Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh said here Friday.
“It is difficult to define green economy, but my approach has been to find environment-friendly alternatives to the process of development. In the times to come, we need to create 8-10 million jobs while keeping the environment sustainability in mind,” Ramesh said at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Business Session on building a green economy.
India is the global host of the World Environment Day 2011 on June 5.
Talking about the country’s solar power generation targets, the minister said that India needs to take inspiration from Germany that gets 17 percent of its energy supply from renewable business.
“We should have been the country ahead in the world for solar power generation, but unfortunately we are not. Germany’s example of renewable energy generation is something the corporate sector should also focus on,” the minister added.
Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, said: “Economic growth has to be met with the demands to conserve biodiversity, food security, access to natural resources. Green economy is not an alternative economy but is very much a thing of the present.”