Energy security should be top agenda, says Pachauri

The Energy and Research Institute (New Delhi) Director General Dr R K Pachauri called for appropriate measures to counter energy security challenges confronting India.

He added that energy security should be at the upper most in the agenda of policy making.

Speaking to media persons after the inauguration of the newly renovated anatomy museum here on Saturday, Pachauri said the policy makers need to have indepth analysis of the impending energy crisis. “I am deeply concerned with the energy crisis in India.

This country will face very serious energy security challenge. If we continue the way we are, by 2031-32 one should be aware of the amount of fossil fuel that goes impotent. The other aspect of energy  that we do not pay enough attention is that around 400 million people in this age do not have access to electricity in India,” he said.

Stating that his institute has launched a programme on solar energy, he said, “we have designed solar lanterns that are light weight and are of less cost and use LED.

We are planning to train one woman in a village to charge these solar lanterns on every rooftop of the house and light them every night. It is essentially a business based model,” he said and added that he has been pleading to the government to give subsidies to solar lanterns.

Stating that the amount of smog at the ground level in Delhi is very harmful, Pachauri said, “we took some measures and CNG was introduced. Flyovers were constructed and old buses were sent out of Delhi.

It is very important for us to come up with ultra low sulphur fuel. We also have to tighten the automobile standards. The situation in small towns are far worse than the situation what we have in metros.

The Supreme Court has really done so much in this regard. If it was not the judiciary, perhaps our environment problems would have been far more severe,” he added.