As you might have got shocked seeing the subject line of today's topic, I have got shocked to see an article from a finance house this morning on a prime market buzz word "Green". I am NOT sure why suddenly whole lot of companies talking about "hole" in the ozone layer as greenists have been warning us atleast a decade from now though.
Coming back to Subject, This article mentioned "This can push India into darkness" and story goes like this...
Excerpt from the article - Equitymaster's 5 minute wrapup (dated 12/07/09) -
"t is not uncommon for households and industries in India to keep backups for energy supply. After all, load shedding has been a regular menace even in metro and urban areas. As per World Bank, in 2008, India faced a 16.6% shortfall of electricity during hours of peak consumption. This was on the back of a 9.9% gap in energy generation. Coal is seen as the key solution to India's power shortage, a daunting barrier to the country's development. Primarily because people in semi urban and rural areas cannot afford costly electricity produced from renewable sources.
India has 10% of the world's coal reserves. India's reserves are the biggest after the US, Russia and China. However, it had to import about 70 m tonnes of high grade coal in FY09, mostly for making steel. The country plans to add 78.7 gigawatts of power generation during the five years ending March 2012. Most of it will be from coal, which now accounts for about 60% of India's energy mix. Even if India is on track with its renewable energy plans, coal will still account for about 55% of its power supply by 2030.
The emerging economies have often insisted that rich nations have caused global warming. The developed ones that are done with their industrial growth are happy to comply with emission norms. Renewable energy is steadily gaining ground in the West. However, looking at the high cost of solar and wind energy, the questions that arises is - can India afford them? India, the world's fourth largest greenhouse gas emitter is still very low on per-capita emission. The country's industrial electricity tariffs are amongst the highest in the world, a measure aimed at deterring wastage. Nevertheless, it is under pressure to cut pollution to battle climate change. This is at a time when the nation's demand for power is rising with more Indian middle class buying houses and electronic items.
India has committed to contributing towards reducing "carbon intensity". It has set a goal to rein the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted per unit of economic output by 20 - 25% until 2020. However, what is the price that the nation will have to pay? Does this mean that India's future will once again be pushed into 'darkness'? "
If you have NOT noticed it already, I thought worth repeating some of the lines to be highlighted
1) India, the world's fourth largest greenhouse gas emitter is still very low on per-capita emission.
2) The country's industrial electricity tariffs are amongst the highest in the world, a measure aimed at deterring wastage.
I guess with the above set of facts in place, my entrepreneur brother has this new start up exactly at the correct time and I hope to see more such firms swarming the country with an affordable alternative energy systems in place. Recently I read this Mckinsey article where they took up an initiative in collaboration with Duke's university on and about building an affordable energy effiicient solutions in place which could be the next potential business landscape.
"டவுட்" தனபால்: அடுத்த எலெக்ஷன்ல நம்ப அரசியல்வாதிங்க கிட்ட சோலார் அடுப்பும் சோலார் டிவி-யும் ப்ரீ-யா குடுக்க சொல்லலாமே!! affordable -ஆ இருக்கும்ல!!
Monday, December 7, 2009
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Many analysts, including some of India's own negotiators at Copenhagen have it all wrong. They incorrectly equate emissions to development.
ReplyDeleteWe need to clearly delink the two. Why should we not aim for clean and sustainable development. When we already have the technologies for pushing clean development why must we pollute the planet and bring it to the brink to develop.
In the last 30 years we have added so much CO2 belching coal power to our grid, but still nearly 800 million rural people barely get 12 hours of electricity.
Why not provide them with small scale, decentralized solar, biomass and wind plants.
Why not improve energy efficiency of our devices.
Why not improve our public transport systems and reduce dependency on cars.
Why not improve fuel efficiency of vehicles?
These are all possibly with current technology, but industry does not want to make the move.
I think Jairam Ramesh has taken bold steps and pushed India into a leadership position.
When the British used violence to control the Indian freedom struggle did Gandhi refuse to talk to them unless they quit the violence? He continued to protest in a non-violent manner, thus showing them he was intellectually, politically and spiritually ahead of the so called "civilized" British.
We have to SHAME the "developed" world into seeing their folly just like Gandhi shamed the "civilized" British.
It's not use arguing about who created the problem. We should now get the US and other annexe 1 nations to commit to 40% emission reductions, as well as to provide funds and technology so we can make even better reductions on emissions.
We have taken a bold first step and shown leadership, now the developed world should follow.