India not to take any obligation on cutting emissions, says Manmohan Singh

clean energy

 

Greentech Lead India: At the Fourth Clean Energy Ministerial in Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged participating nations to take action to increase energy efficiency.

The PM raised concern over the “painfully slow” progress in climate talks and reminded the leaders that the goal of stabilizing global temperatures was nowhere in sight.

Singh also clarified that India is not going to take any obligation on cutting emissions on any forum.

The Fourth Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) was co-chaired by Planning Commission deputy chairman Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia and U.S. energy secretary Steven Chu. The Ministerial was attended by energy ministers of 20 leading economies.

Earlier there were concerns on whether the CEM, originally a United States (U.S.)-initiative, would undermine the ongoing discussions in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as the U.S. refuses to ratify Kyoto Protocol under the UNFCCC.

Responding to that convern, Ahluwalia said, “The proposition that CEM is designed to undermine UNFCCC is wrong because CEM is not a negotiation forum. It would be exceptionally foolish to take that position.”

Revealing India’s stand on renewable energy subsidies, Singh reiterated that India is pitching for subsidies for clean energy because market forces alone would not be able to finance it. Investments in renewable energy sector were subject to technological, commercial and regulatory risk, PM said.

The response comes at a time when India has been criticized by the U.S and Australia for its policy favoring domestic solar PV manufacturers.

“For the moment green energy is not viable on its own without subsidy or regulatory incentives. Investors obviously need assurance that these incentives will continue,” he said.

Singh reminded that rich nations which were responsible for bulk greenhouse gas emission were best placed to provide solutions to mitigate climate challenges. The argument is based on the fact that industrialized nations also have high per capita income and technological advantages which gave them the highest capacity to bear the burden.

However the initiatives by these countries toward climate change negotiations have been painfully slow. “The goal of stabilizing global temperatures at acceptable levels is nowhere in sight,” he said.

India is keen to ensure induction of the best technology and ensure domestic production of the equipment needed for adding solar capacity. The country is also re-assessing its wind potential in both onshore and offshore areas to devise a long-term plan to exploit these sources of energy.

It is imperative for India and other developing countries to devise a robust renewable energy policy. Developing countries account for 82 percent of the world’s population and they use 55 percent of the available global supply of energy. To achieve faster GDP growth and improve living standards of their citizens, these countries will entail an expanded demand for energy.

If the developing countries follow their developed counterparts to achieve this growth, the result will be a climate disaster, Singh reminded.

Offering a solution to this dilemma, Singh said, “We can only meet the challenge by responding in two ways. First, we must contain the total growth in energy associated with the growth of GDP by improving energy efficiency. Second, we can work to shift from conventional to non-conventional or clean energy.”

Ministerial is an excellent platform for experience sharing across the countries and called for evolving a workable solution for promoting energy efficiency and market viability of clean energy initiatives, Singh said.

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