India, China need to develop clean energy solutions: Obama

Reiterating the need to reduce dependence on oil as opposed to other sources of energy like wind and solar, the US President Barack Obama has said that India and China, countries having huge population, need to rapidly develop clean energy solutions.     

"If everybody is dependent solely on oil, as opposed to energy sources like wind and solar, if we are not able to figure out ways to sequester carbon and that would allow us to use coal in a non- polluting way, if we don't diversify our energy sources, then all of us are going to be in trouble," Obama told reporters yesterday in response to a question on his meeting with the Saudi King and US's effort to reduce dependence on foreign oil.     

"Our goal has to be is to advance a clean-energy solution, in this country, that can strengthen our economy, put people back to work, diversify our energy sources," he said.      

"Interestingly enough, you are seeing the Saudis make significant investments, both in their own country and outside of their country, in clean energy as well. I think they (Saudis) recognise that, you know, we have got a finite supply of oil. There are going to be a whole host of countries, like China and India that have huge populations, need to develop rapidly," Obama said.

Ever since becoming the US President early this year, Obama has been emphasising that the key to global energy solutions and climate change lies in the hands of countries like India and China, which are the two most populated countries of the world and are rapidly developing.      

"Saudi Arabia has been an important strategic partner in providing us with our critical energy needs. We appreciate that. It's a commercial relationship as well as a strategic relationship. I don't think that it's in Saudi Arabia's interests or our interests to have a situation in which our economy is dependent on, or is disrupted constantly by huge spikes in energy prices," he said.      

"It is in nobody's interests internationally for us to continue to be so heavily dependent on fossil fuels that we continue to create the greenhouse gases that warm the planet. So in those discussions, I will be very honest with King Abdullah, with whom I have developed a good relationship, indicating to him that we are not going to be eliminating our need for oil imports in the immediate future — that's not our goal," Obama said.