This story is from October 13, 2018

‘Sustainability, development poles apart’

‘Sustainability, development poles apart’
A discussion on energy, security and climate change
MOHALI: Balancing development and sustainability could be problematic for India, Ritu Mathur, who leads integrated economic analysis and modelling programme at Teri (The Energy and Research Institute), said on Friday at Young Thinkers’ Conference organised by the British deputy high commission and Indian School of Business (ISB) in Mohali.
Students, who were younger than 25 mostly, participated in this session on ‘Energy security and climate change: How to shape India’s sustainable development’.
Observer Research Foundation chairman Sunjoy Joshi, Council on Energy Environment and Water research fellow Vaibhav Chaturvedi, South Asia Government Relations Climate Group senior manager Nehmat Kaur, and ISB’s associate professor of public policy Ashwini Chhatre were also on the panel of speakers.
About making changes at the grassroots level, Ritu said the idea of sustainable development had been incorporated in us since childhood. “However, its implementation is a separate matter, taking into consideration its large scale,” she said adding “The LPG usage has increased in the rural areas but it has not decreased our carbon dioxide emissions. The only alternative is shifting to electrified cooking.”
Talking about the basis of socio-economic setup in India, Ashwini said: “Agriculture is the base of this pyramid. Climate is bound to affect it. Farmers need choices to switch to sustainable farming, incentives instead of diktats to avoid burning crop stubble.”
Ritu and Ashwini agreed that while the country was striving for sustainable development, sustainability and development were poles apart. The panel agreed on how the popularity of LEDs helped manufacturers bring down the cost of these energy-efficient lamps. “But the more something becomes cheaper and its usage increases, the more it adds to electricity consumption,” Sunjoy Joshi said. The talk ened with a remark from Ashwini on how collective steps were needed to quicken India’s growth towards sustainable development.
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