Formulating India’s energy policies for efficient economic growth considering international focus on environmental protection

Abstract

India’s economic growth has also seen steady rise after liberalisation, averaging around 7% annually since 1997. Consequently, India’s energy demand is poised to grow rapidly in the coming decade. India is still largely dependent on “dirty coal” to fuel its energy needs, and this has led to direct conflicts between India and the developed nations, especially on the issue of environmental damage. In this context, we have tried to study and suggest methods by which India can deflect the international pressures of environmental protection while ensuring that India’s growth is not stunted due to lack of energy security. We contrasted India and China’s Energy policies and found that the Chinese policy is action oriented with a strong state backing. On the contrary, India’s Integrated Energy Policy is lacking in commitments and has been criticized for being impractical and unsustainable. We also studied the Indian power sector scenario and recommend a focussed implementation of Interstate Power Trading as an actionable method of assuaging the world about India’s seriousness towards climate. This would also exemplify the Supplementarity clause of the Kyoto Protocol – Articles 6, 17 and 12, and would even surpass the efforts of many developed nations in this case.