Expressing concern over the inordinately slow pace of climate negotiations, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh regretted that the “goal of stabilising global temperatures at acceptable levels was nowhere in sight”.
Dr Singh, therefore, felt that the time had come for individual countries to increase their own energy efficiency.
Inaugurating the Fourth Clean Energy Ministerial meet being attended by energy ministers of 20 leading economies, Dr Singh warned against developing countries following the unsustainable energy route that had been adopted by industrialised countries.
“Developing countries account for 82 per cent of the world’s population but they use 55 per cent of the available global supply of energy,” he said.
Developing nations can hope to mitigate emissions by increasing energy efficiency and by shifting from conventional to non-conventional forms of energy.
Dr Singh spelled out that in the 12th Five Year Plan, “we have set ourselves the target of bringing about a 20 to 25 per cent reduction in energy intensity of our GDP by 2020..
India had also drawn up plans to double its renewable energy capacity to 55,000 MW by 2017. “It is proposed to double the renewable energy capacity in our country from 25,000 MW in 2012 to 55,000 MW by the year 2017. This would include exploiting non-conventional energy sources such as solar, wind power and energy from biomass,” he added.
The Prime Minister maintained that rich nations, who were responsible for a bulk of greenhouse gas emissions, were best placed to provide workable solutions to mitigate climate change. “The industrialised nations have high per capita incomes, which gives them the highest capacity to bear the burden. They are technically most advanced and to that extent best placed to provide workable solutions not only for themselves but for the whole world.”
The pace of expansion of reliance on new energy sources was constrained by the fact that these were more expensive than conventional energy he said.
As part of the solar mission, India was setting up a National Institute of Solar energy which would have a e global level R and D centre.
India also planned to launch a National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency and also a National Mission on Electric Mobility.