External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday declared that energy security was a matter of considerable concern to India given the direct link between energy consumption and human development.
In his remarks at the Major Economies Meeting on Energy, Security and Climate Change, being held at the US Department of State and hosted by US President George W Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Mukherjee said, "The imperative of meeting our people's aspirations for a better life, demands that India grow rapidly around at 8 -10 per cent per year in the coming decades."
"India needs to substantially increase per-capita electricity consumption and cannot compromise on this," he said.
"India is determined that even as we pursue economic growth, our per capita GHG emissions will not increase beyond that of the industrialized nations," he pledged, while acknowledging that 'rapid economic growth and concomitant energy production and electricity consumption will increase CO2 emissions.'
Mukherjee said that in order to do this India's efforts 'include increased energy efficiency and conservation and the use of renewable and clean energy like nuclear,' and explained that 'with about 7,000 megawatts of installed wind-power, India now has the fourth-highest wind generated electricity capacity in the world.'
"Targeted demand side management programs have brought energy efficiency in India in all the major energy intensive sectors -- steel, aluminum, fertilizer, paper and cement -- to global levels," he added.
Mukherjee said that India had also made other efforts, including introduction of CNG for public and private transport in metropolitan areas, metro rail networks, a major bio-diesel program and the blending of ethanol in petrol.
"One of the world's largest aforestation efforts in recent times called Green India, covering six million hectares of degraded forest land, is underway in India," he added.
Mukherjee pointed out that India is susceptible to 'extreme climate variability,' and said that consequently 'the country spends more than 2 per cent of its GDP each year in development measures with strong adaptation content like cyclone warning and protection, flood and drought control and relief and food security measures.'
He acknowledged that "further global warming is inevitable as a result of concentration of GHG in the atmosphere caused by emissions from the industrialized countries."
Thus, Mukherjee said, "The key issue for India and other developing countries is developing the ability to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change and adapt to it," and said that in order to do this it is imperative that India has access to 'technological and financial resources that can only come through development, which, without doubt, is the best form of adaptation.'
"The time is not ripe for us to take on quantitative targets of emissions limitation," he said, arguing that 'these would be counterproductive and have a negative effect on our development process.'
"Developed countries need to continue to take the lead in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities," he asserted.
"In this context, we are pleased by this meeting's emphasis on technology," Mukherjee said, emphasizing that 'any long term solution to climate change required the development and diffusion of technologies for adaptation.'
He called for research and development in clean technologies that could be advanced through programs of collaborative R&D between institutions in developed and developing countries and said the sharing of intellectual property rights was crucial.
"A more fair balance between rewards to the innovator, and the global imperative of sustainable development, is essential, if large-scale deployment of advanced, clean technologies is to occur," he said.
Mukherjee argued that 'technology control regimes needed to be dispensed with for advanced clean technologies,' and also said that 'standards and priorities should reflect the developmental context to which they apply.'
He thanked the Bush administration for taking the lead in hosting this meeting, which according to him was bound to throw up a rich variety of diverse ideas, and expressed confidence that this meeting will greatly facilitate negotiations at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
At the outset, besides thanking Bush for convening this meeting, and stating that it envisaged the major economies to explore opportunities for large scale cooperative action on energy security and climate change, made the point to those who argue that India and China are two of the biggest CO2 emitters that 'in India's case, we have a very small individual carbon footprint with per-capita CO2 emissions being just about a quarter of the world's average.'
"However, our willingness to engage in finding practical, pragmatic solutions, and cooperating in advanced clean technologies for the benefit of entire humankind is second to none," he declared.
