Stop kerosene subsidy, promote solar lamps: Pachauri

Advocating the use of renewable energy in day-to-day life, eminent environmentalist R.K. Pachauri Tuesday urged the government to cut the subsidy on kerosene and instead subsidise solar lanterns.

Head of a high-level panel on power revamp, "Advisory Group for Integrated Development of Power, Coal and Renewable Energy", Suresh Prabhu, meanwhile, said conventional energy was not only harming the environment but also the economy.

"There is a huge subsidy on kerosene. But the same kerosene is used in adulterating petrol. The kerosene lamps have a very bad effect on health whether it is children, or adults," Pachauri, the head of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said Tuesday.

"Government should remove the subsidy on kerosene and perhaps give subsidy on solar lanterns instead," he said at the 13th Leadership Summit for Sustainable Development organised by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Pachauri said he had discussed the idea with the previous Congress-led government, and will take it up again with the BJP-led government soon.

Pachauri also said that solar energy had a great scope in the urban area and the Delhi government is in the process of finalising a programme to encourage roof-top solar panels in the capital.

Prabhu said the current account deficit India was facing was largely due to imports of petroleum and coal.

"The prices that we pay are not even free market prices, some countries make a group and decide what the prices would be," said Prabhu.

"The whole life cycle of coal...costs more than any other energy source. Energy should therefore be based on local sources," he said.

Prabhu said the countries with more than 300 days of sunshine should make a club and together develop the potential for solar power.