Two unrelated news reports emerged this week.

The Obama administration deployed its first-ever trade mission to India. The delegation was here to discuss business opportunities in the field of solar energy.

The second one in The Guardian newspaper, quoted climate scientists as saying that "it's over" - that the years in which more than two degrees of global warming could have been prevented have passed. On current trajectories, the article said, "We'll be lucky to get away with four degrees."

Now juxtapose these two reports with the more widely covered Earth Hour, the WWF's effort to get people across the world to switch off all lights for an hour between 8:30 and 9:30 PM on the March 28 to show solidarity for the planet. The UN Secretary-General is calling this, "the largest demonstration of public concern on climate change."

Getting a billion people together to vote against Global Warming is unprecedented, so is perhaps the fact that the latest American administration's first trade priority with India is on renewable energy, but this begs the question, are we responding to dire warnings with public tokenism?

Let me qualify that question.

The National Action Plan on Climate Change has put emphasis on solar energy as the key renewable to curb green house gas emissions. Shyam Saran, the PM's Special Envoy for Climate Change even went on record in the US last week, to say that India is in the process of elaborating an ambitious plan for solar energy.

But Jairam Ramesh, India's former power minister, recently - and quite candidly - admitted that India's energy needs will continue to be driven primarily by coal, a much cheaper and abundantly available alternative. And all the government is willing to do for now is invest in clean coal technology.

As for the Earth Hour, a question posed by a scientist in a recent report on this mega event struck a chord with me; "Do our actions add up to anything meaningful or are we just making ourselves feel better?"

Given that electricity accounts for more than half of the total CO2 emissions in the Indian subcontinent according to the IEA, the switch off campaign is indeed relevant.

But here's what I am concerned about. To elicit more participation this time around for Earth Hour, the WWF removed last year's condition that businesses who participated had to pledge to cut 5 per cent of their emissions by the following year. Not enough takers for concrete action?

Climate change economists rue that most companies steer shy of energy innovations because they cost money before the earnings can kick in.

As an aside, my husband and I, taking a cue from the recent National Geographic cover report, decided to measure our own household energy consumption on a daily basis - a self-audit of sorts to see where we can cut down.

But even as he jots down the daily readings, I already have a rough idea - as most Indians would, being historically conscious of electricity usage in order to keep billing costs in check. My water geyser, A/Cs that I will turn on in the next few weeks and idle power in the form of my perpetually turned on notebook and Net connection will all consume power that can be saved with efficient use.

One idea my parents are in fact considering is fitting doors and windows with netting to let in the breeze whenever possible. I know many apartments like theirs, built at a height, that can manage without an AC even in the peak of summer.

Years of conspicuous consumption has meant that there are those households in India that run ten A/Cs and keep generators powerful enough to run them even during power cuts. But these are an exception, and if you take them out of the equation, Indian households, without the benefit of central heating and cooling systems, consume far less energy and power than your typical American household.

So after our tryst with the light switch - maybe we could also switch off the ignition keys of our cars and bikes at traffic signals. The Petroleum Conservation Research Association has been quietly advertising that this way, commuters could make up to 20% savings on fuel expenditure.

One could also make a pledge to buy appliances that save energy - generators, refrigerators, even laptop brands are hard selling cost saver goods right now.

Too simplistic? Perhaps! But if you're one among a billion who have decided to switch off lights - then you know that simple things can make a small difference. And small differences in sheer numbers do add up.

At a time when fuel prices are falling, the Indian auto business is far from floundering and our policies don't enforce the most stringent emission norms on private four-wheelers, one man has redefined the Indian auto market with a car that's high on fuel efficiency, high on emission standards and low on cost. We've achieved creative destruction with the Tata Nano, so why not with energy?

Coal maybe cheap now (the planet currently holds an estimated 10 trillion tonnes of readily accessible coal), but they say solar energy from one area in the Barmer desert in Rajasthan is enough to service India's electricity needs forever. Maybe what we need is a few good men with a vision to power India with clean energy at a competitive price.

So after an hour of dancing in the dark, in step with the rest of the world, maybe we need to send another 'message', that we can break league with the West, not pursue their carbon-intensive development trajectory further. We can environmentally leapfrog to achieve growth without hampering sustainability.

It's the only way forward