A report by Worldwatch Institute claims that China and India may set the stage for a cleaner and greener earth. Christopher Flavin, director of the environmental research group suggested that;

China and India are positioned to leapfrog today’s industrial powers and become world leaders in sustainable energy and agriculture within a decade. We were encouraged to find that a growing number of opinion leaders in China and India now recognize that the resource-intensive model for economic growth can’t work in the 21st century.

China’s world leading solar-industry already provides water heating for 35 million buildings, and India’s pioneering use of rainwater harvesting brings clean water to tens of thousands of homes, according to the 244-page report.

Zjeng Bijian, head of China Economic Reform, an academic group, called in the report for “a new path of industrialization based on technology, low consumption of resources, low environmental pollution and the optimal allocation of human resources.”

Flavin challanged the U.S. to improve its efforts;

Americans wondering why the price of oil is so high need only to look in the mirror. A new economic path is at least as crucial for the United States as it is for China or India.”