India to promote renewables as part of national environmental policy
NEW DELHI, India, 2004-09-29 (Refocus Weekly)
India's support for sustainable development by the promotion of renewable energies will result in a "relatively GHG benign growth path."
The government has issued a draft ‘National Environment Policy' for
comments until the end of October. The document will replace a number of current
policies for environmental management contained in forestry, conservation,
pollution and other regulations.
"The direct causes of air pollution are emissions from the use of fossil
energy, and other industrial processes, and some consumption activities,"
it explains. "In terms of primary energy use, India's share of renewable
energy at 36% is far higher than industrialized countries can hope to reach in
many decades."
"Since GHG emissions are directly linked to economic activity, India's
economic growth will necessarily involve increase in GHG emissions from the
current extremely low levels," it continues. "Any constraints on the
emissions of GHG by India, whether direct, by way of emissions targets, or
indirect, will reduce growth rates."
"Sustainable development concerns in the sense of enhancement of human
well-being, broadly conceived, are a recurring theme in India's development
philosophy," it adds. "For this to occur there is a need for balance
and harmony between economic, social and environmental needs of the
country."
"It is recognised that maintaining a healthy environment is not the state's
responsibility alone, but also that of every citizen," and the Policy is
designed to "mainstream environmental concerns in all development
activities." It will also be a guide to action: in regulatory reform,
programs and enactment of legislation by agencies of the central, state and
local governments.
The document says ‘clean technologies' are superior to ‘end-of-pipe
abatement technologies' because they minimize the generation of waste streams in
the production processes, rather than treating the waste after generation.
"In general, clean technologies are less intensive in use of raw materials
and energy, than conventional technologies, which rely on pollution abatement
after generation. For this reason, they may also offer significant cost
advantages to the producer."
"Environmental protection is an integral part of the development
process," and sustainable development requires environmental protection to
be an integral part and not considered in isolation. The principle of ‘Polluter
Pays' must be included and the impacts from ‘externalities' must be used to
restore economic efficiency "by making the perpetrator of the externality
bear the cost (or benefit) of the same."
The causes for air pollution including regulatory shortcomings that include
"inefficient pricing of fossil fuel based energy." The low societal
status of women leads to continued use of inefficient biomass stoves, while
pricing policies for agricultural chemicals lead to substitution of biomass
fertilizer by chemicals, leaving the biomass to be used inefficiently as fuel.
The Policy suggests that an action plan encourage capacity building in the
financial sector for appraising clean technology switchover project proposals,
and consider use of revenue-enhancing fiscal instruments to promote shifts to
clean technologies in both existing and new units. Environmental education is
needed and should be included in the curricula of formal education at all
levels.
The Policy will be reviewed and updated every three years following
consultations with stakeholders and, after the third three-year review, a
"more comprehensive examination of the scientific and policy understanding
of environmental issues" will be done to develop a new National Environment
Policy.
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