Article published in Indian Express, July 20th, 2007 Slamming global policies related to the pursuing of renewable energy production, General Chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy Dr Herman Scheer said that it was a mistake for countries to wait for global consensus on policies to be adopted to reduce the dependence on conventional energy sources.
Speaking at Solar India 2007, organised by the World Institute of Sustainable Energy (WISE) on Thursday, he said "It is a mistake to wait for global Solutions. All Conferences on renewable energy have only one unanimous decision. That of holding the next round of talks. Since it is an economic burden on countries, the attitude is that all countries follow it or no one follows it. Everybody knows that the dependence on convention-al energies will not lead to a good end. But nobody has the commitment to change. Energy crisis is the most important challenge for developing countries. It is imperative that we convert the macro economic benefits to micro economic incentives through a favourable policy."
He also said that in the last 17 years energy consumption had increased by 50 per cent and the amount of energy we receive from the sun in 15 minutes equals the annual fossil and nuclear fuel consumption glob-ally. He stressed on developing better techniques to harvest solar energy and warned that the dependence on nuclear and fossil fuels was not just a climate problem, but would also lead to crisis in water and political stability, as military activities were increasing in a bid to control areas that had reserves of conventional fuels.
Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India V Subramanian and Director General of WISE, G M Pillai were also present on the occasion.