CALCUTTA – The Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United States-Asia Environmental Partnership (US-AEP) for promoting its newly constituted Environment Management Centre (EMC).

The letter of intent (Lol) was signed here by the ICC president, Mr Aditya V. Lodha; Mr Richard Goldman, director, Office of Environment, Energy & Enterprise at USAID; and Mr Ronald F. Cornell, group vice president of Louis Berger International on behalf of US-AEP.

The agreement was inked in the presence of Ms. Kathleen A. McGinty, former Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and currently a senior visiting fellow of the Tata Energy Research Institute.

As a full-fledged partner, "ICC will have direct access to USAID’s $150-million environment programme coupled with technology assistance for its green initiative," Mr. Goldman said.

ICC will be also able to access USAID’s online database for offering informed support to domestic industries planning to implement such energy management systems.

According to Mr Goldman: "the latest MoU is in line with USAID’s clean technology initiative which is committed to provide development assistance for helping Indian industries adopt suitable environment management systems to improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

The ICC president, Mr Lodha, believed the agreement with the two U.S. agencies was primarily aimed at spreading the word about the economic benefits that accrue for industries deploying suitable environment management systems.

For instance, coal-fired power stations are tipped to see a sizeable cutback in their operational and maintenance (O&M) costs if they use washed coal instead of the "regular grade" as their fuel.

Significantly, the agreement with USAID and US-AEP will bolster the technical capabilities and institutional capacities of the ICC. It will essentially help on two counts:

• Establish a self-sustaining environment information mechanism in the eastern region, and
• Assist Indian industries, particularly, the power, transportation and hydrocarbon sectors, adopt sound environment management technologies.