For someone who rode to victory by ridiculing the climate-friendly predilections of her predecessor, the Australian PM Julia Gillard has given everyone a cause for surprise by her moves on the sustainable energy front. She pushed forward a carbon tax, making way for the largest emissions-trading scheme outside the EU in Australia. She has now announced ahead of her party?s conference next month that it should revisit a half-century long opposition to uranium exports to countries that haven?t signed NPT, to make an exception for India: ?As India rises and brings hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, it will need more energy. It is looking to supply 40% of that energy need through nuclear energy, [and] we are a very big supplier of uranium.? Given how India?s economic rise and the Indo-US nuclear deal has transformed diplomatic circumstances across the world, ?for us to refuse to budge is all pain with no gain?, she said. Her party is expected to confirm this policy change.
Does India really need Australian uranium today? Well, despite an expansion of domestic mining?a big deposit in Andhra Pradesh was announced in July this year?our nuclear energy programme continues to depend on imports for the bulk of its supplies. Our earlier imports crunch has obviously been eased by the historic deal with the US, helping the NPCIL plant load factor increase by 10% and its electricity generation record an increase of 41% last year. And since 2008, India has been on a uranium-imports-agreements-signing spree with everyone from France, Russia and Kazakhstan to Namibia, Tajikistan and Mongolia. Fukushima and its fallout have softened supply anyway. But energy is obviously a long game; you plan today not only for tomorrow but for the next half century when demand may pick up again. This is why India has kept lobbying with Australia for loosening up its exports sanctions. As for Australian self-interest, India is already its fourth biggest export market and likely to just move upwards. Those really supporting the Gillard move today are the likes of Paul Kelly of The Australian, who argues George Bush?s setting up a new US-India partnership will be more significant for the coming century than his Iraq war policy.
