Editorial: Give us better access to cleaner technologies

As he intervenes in the global debate on climate change at Gleneagles, Scotland — which begins today — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has an opportunity to give pragmatism a chance in recasting energy use around the world. Tony Blair, the prime minister of Great Britain, who is hosting this year’s G-8 summit, argues that global warming is the single biggest threat to humanity today. Blair is trying, heroically, to put together a new consensus by trying to bridge the apparently irreconcilable positions of Europe and America on the issue. Europe backs the Kyoto Protocol, that calls for energy demand management through international quotas for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.

The Bush administration has rejected the Kyoto Protocol and insists on supply side solutions through the introduction of new energy technologies like nuclear power and hydrogen fuel for automobiles.The decision by the G-8 to invite the leaders of five emerging economies to join the discussion on climate change recognises the importance of countries of the size of India and China in matters dealing with the threat of global warming.

India believes energy demand management is the responsibility of the world’s rich nations and not of the poor, who need greater energy consumption to fuel development. At Gleneagles, the G-8 is not seeking to bind the emerging economies to new commitments on carbon emissions. This provides the right ambience for Singh to make a strong case not only for the greater use of emission-free nuclear power but also for relaxing the current international restrictions on atomic energy cooperation with India.While India’s interest lies in backing the supply side line on promoting nuclear power and other clean energy technologies, it must go further than Washington.

Singh must propose ways and means to provide India and other developing countries greater access to these new technologies. Avoiding the old divisive rhetoric, Singh must focus on practical outcomes — the creation of new networks of international energy cooperation, putting new and clean technologies in the public domain by squaring the circle of intellectual property rights and establishing a new window to finance clean energy development in the emerging economies.