Energy solutions discussed ahead of World Sustainable Development Summit

Ahead of a major environment summit to be held next month, the Embassy of France and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) on Friday discussed ways to achieve sustainable methods of curbing carbon emissions globally and also on the major environmental challenges facing the two countries.

The seminar was attended by, among others, Ajay Mathur, Director General, TERI; Alexandre Ziegler, Ambassador of France; and former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran. It was the last in the Regional Dialogues series, under which similar events have been organised already at Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Guwahati.

"The key question is how we manage the volatility in the supply and demand of energy vis-a-vis technology change," Mathur said at the event.

"How people and the planet progress will depend among other things on how we manage technological change," he added.

Announcing the World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) 2016, he said that 'People, Planet and Progress' is the theme of the Summit which is to be held from October 5-8.

Ziegler emphasised on the technological innovations and remarked that "discussions on technology issues must also focus on ways to engage with the private sector as technologies are usually not owned by governments".

Saran, although disappointed at the pace of change in adoption of the carbon emission cut-down measures by the governments, praised the 'Mission Innovation' and 'International Solar Alliance' agreed upon at the Conference of Parties held last year at Paris, also known as COP 21.

COP is the international platform agreed upon by almost all the countries of the Earth to discuss the global environmental concerns since the first such was held at Rio in 1992.

Saran also talked about the need of an extended diplomatic mandate in dealing with other nations' counterparts when deliberating on environmental concerns.

"When diplomats negotiate, they are told by their governments to give as little and take as much as possible. The result is that the two parties arrive at the least common denominator," Saran lamented.

"Technology is going to be a critical element of any solution related to climate change... extraordinary challenges need extraordinary solutions," he said, adding that since technology is usually reposed in private hands, it's the market based solutions that we need to concentrate upon.

--IANS

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