PM pitches for subsidies for clean energy

Hitting out at rich nations for bulk of greenhouse gas emissions, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today pitched for subsidies for clean energy saying market forces alone would not be able to finance it.
Singh also voiced concern over "painfully slow" progress in climate talks and said the goal of stabilising global temperatures was "nowhere in sight". He urged individual countries to take action to increase energy efficiency.
The Prime Minister was speaking at the Fourth Clean Energy Ministerial, co-chaired by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and US Energy Secretary Steven Chu and attended by Energy Ministers of 20 leading economies.

Highlighting critical issues in promoting expansion of green energy, Singh said investments in the sector were subject to technological, commercial and regulatory risk.
"For the moment green energy is not viable on its own without subsidy or regulatory incentives. Investors obviously need assurance that these incentives will continue," he said.
Singh said market forces alone will not provide sufficient financing in this environment unless the risks of policy change were appropriately addressed.

The pace of reliance on new energy sources was constrained by the fact that they were more expensive than conventional energy, he said.
The costs of solar energy had nearly halved over the last two years, but was still higher than the cost of fossil fuel based electricity, he said.

Singh also made it clear that rich nations, who were responsible for a bulk of greenhouse gas emissions, were best placed to provide workable solutions to mitigate climate change.