Climate Reality Guru Nobel laureate and
former US vice-president Al Gore is crusader of climate change.So where does India stand on its way to Paris?
By Climate Reality Mentor Elsie Gabriel, Mumbai,
India.
I don’t know about you, but I want to share that I grew up as a child
studying almost every evening under the dim light of a kerosene lantern or
candles, atleast for a few hours daily. I grew up in West Bengal India and with
parents who were teachers in the Irish Christian Brothers school it was a routine
thing to do, study, read books or play outdoors and study some more.We had the best
of amenities and the best of childhood memories playing outdoors in the wilderness, but ‘Power cuts’ and ‘Lights
out’ are words which still ring in my ears, reminding me of how we would
struggle to bring light into the house during study hours. This, believe me was the experience of
most folks of my age during childhood, and guess what, some parts of India
still go through such chronic lack of energy, un announced power cuts which paralyze
industries, homes and households. Till today!!!
And some ofcourse still do not have any power at all. Electricity consumption in our country has
been increasing at such high speed due to population growth and economic
development. India’s economy faces increasing challenges because energy supply
is struggling to keep pace with demand and there are energy shortages (as much
as 15 percent daily in some places) almost everywhere in the country as unreliable supplies
still threaten India’s economic growth. This may sound strange to you because you live in a city or uptown,because we belong to only the tip of the ice berg of the Indian population, for that matter anyone reading this blog any where in the world right now.
Yet, the fact remains that our growth is constrained by energy supply and
availability. Although we have seen an impressive increase in installed
capacity addition, we still can not match the demand.
So, what can India do to meet the future energy demands and help eliminate
wide-ranging power outages in the future? The government needs to research how
best to address the power needs to meet the future growth and prevent such
massive power failures. India’s ‘power blackout’’ is an opportunity to develop
sustainable energy solutions. Let the ‘darkness of the power cuts’ show us the way!
We are a sun shining country, the source is for free, we as a country have
always been eco friendly, using sunlight to dry our clothes and tumble dry our
utensils out on the racks outdoors. More so, use earthen pots made of clay to set our curd
and drink water or hot ‘chai’ tea from. We stored water in earthen vessels.We have mostly used'pital' 'tamba' or steel plates which could be recycled like forever...we used bio degradable ‘patals’
or plates made from leaves. It was auspicious to eat from them during marriages
or religious functions. May be the newer generation may not
but believe me, we Indians had parents and grandparents who used a set of cloth
bags all their lives. One for the fish market, another for the vegetables and rations
so on, they were washed after each use and reused!!
All
these memories came flashing back during a meet led by former US Vice President Al Gore which aimed to focus on the renewable
energy potential for India and the key role that the country plays in the lead
up to the discussions in France later this year. High-profile leaders in
renewable energy joined Nobel laureate and former US vice-president Al Gore here to train Climate Reality Leaders here in India last
month, on the science of climate change and solutions for the climate crisis
while developing skills to effectively communicate about both the challenges
and opportunities.
The speakers included Ken Berlin, president & CEO, Climate
Reality Project; Ajay Mathur, director general, Bureau of Energy Efficiency,
Dr. Henry Pollack, Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan
and Angela Rutter, director of
strategic engagement, Australian Conservation Foundation, among many others.
"There are many reasons to be optimistic about our ability to solve the
climate crisis," said Gore, chairman and founder of the Climate Reality
Project, who outlined the details, graphs and statistics as well as the wrath
of climate change, asking the world to wake up.
"The Climate Reality Leadership
training brought together committed activists and citizens from all over
India and from several others nations, it gives me yet another reason to be
hopeful." he added. Al Gore is the guru of Climate Change education and
awareness, his effects on people are deep and his message will spread far and
wide. India was indeed blessed to have him visit, train and resurrect the
mission to fight climate change tooth and nail.
Today, I feel empowered with
the best tools possible to communicate this message of hope. If we educators
can teach the next generation about the climate reality we will be equipping
the future. Please do get in touch with us for Climate Change educational
presentations. Together we can fight climate change.
With awareness of climate change having grown exponentially,
Evangelist of Climate Change Education Al Gore also announced that songwriter
and singer Pharrel Williams will together present the Live Earth concerts to take place June 18 at
various venues across the world. Live Earth Road to Paris 2015 seeks to build
momentum heading into the UN Climate Summit in Paris in December.
Reduce, Reuse, Rethink, Replenish, Recycle and Renew!! I repeat this
daily to all my colleagues, friends and students, it is the like the holy grail
of the basics that can help bring back planet Earth to the greener planet she
was and to fight climate change.
So, where does India stand and where can we go from here? Renewable energy
is the most attractive investment because it will provide long-term economic
growth for India. A favorable renewable energy policy could create millions of
new jobs and an economic stimulus.
India has no better option than to reach out and soak in the sun. Solar energy is
the most cost-effective option for India to reduce 'energy poverty' without
having to extend national grid services to provide power for individual homes
and buildings.
Aggressively expand large-scale distribution
of
renewable energy including solar and
wind, hydro and
biomass to ease the strain on the present
transmission.
Yes, Solar is getting cheaper world wide but in India, the government must develop
favorable
policies to ease the project
permitting process, and to provide startup funds to promote the exponential
growth of renewable energy. We already have solar, we are progressing but lets promote
solar more among the public users, so that it does not have to compete with
conventional energy generation.
Once
research institutions are tapped,
industry, government and civil society will follow the path to solar, to guide
technology development. A corresponding investment will be required in
transmission and distribution.
The country is
hopefully shutting down coal slowly and now knows that pursuing a fossil fuel-led
growth strategy which is already bogged down by environmental concerns is not the way out! So, while
bridging the gap lets get clean energy, sustainable and renewable sources.
With countries coming to Paris this
December to reach a new climate change agreement, lets hope bigger polluters
commit to goals as against to saving their country from economic growth.
Hopefully a balance will be drawn somewhere in peace.
Here
is hoping that India will also continue to move forward because they realize
the benefits of action which is not only
the health of the planet but the health of their citizens.
We as a country know that
India already has the lowest per-capita emissions among major nations but this
is what can make us leaders, world leaders in solar if the government would
provide a predictable policy regime with standard guidelines for approving
renewable energy developments.
Each
country, agreed, will have different responsibilities in fighting the climate
change threats, it is no use comparing India to other countries but to collaborate
and co-operate.
India can be the true contender
of climate leadership!
“Elsie Gabriel, attended
the event as a Climate Reality Mentor from Mumbai mentoring two groups of trainees, She is founder of the Young
Environmentalists Programme Trust an NGO dedicated over the last decade in
educating the youth and community on Climate
change,environment education and green living habits as a certified green teacher.She is also the award winning author of the book called Get Out Get Going Outdoors which has chapters on climate change. The Climate Reality
Project is an organization involved in education and advocacy related to
climate founded by Al Gore. “
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