I am delighted to participate in the unveiling of the green business survey report and the presentation of the green business leadership awards 2010-2011 organised by Financial Express in partnership with Emergent Ventures India. Climate change and energy policy have to be integrated to bring down the greenhouse gases. But the climate change conferences held in the country and the world today do not link energy policies with a climate change policy. I am convinced that climate change issues can be addressed effectively only with a national policy for energy mix before the year 2030. I have suggested the energy independence policy 2030 to the nation, and I would like to discuss this in detail with energy experts and the people who are concerned about climate changes.

I would like to highlight certain developments that have taken place in the country very recently. First, I have had discussions with experts who have succeeded in carrying out experiments of emulsification of 40% water with 60% diesel for running a diesel engine. The engine starting characteristics have been satisfactory, without any ignition problems. The engine has been found to save 40% fuel, with a concomitant advantage in reduced emissions. Second, with the explosive growth in telecom in India, the number of telecom towers have grown to 3,00,000. These towers are powered by gensets, consume nearly 2 billion litres of diesel, costing over R7,000 crore annually. These towers are located at reasonable heights and are best suited for installing solar panels that would power these towers. This is an idea that is undergoing successful trials and if mandated will reduce the towers? carbon footprint significantly, while ensuring disruption-free operations. I am sharing these two developments with the participants of this conference so that they can take up accelerated development of these products.

Next, let me share some thoughts about a vision of global energy independence by 2030. The Energy Vision 2030 has to be three dimensional. First, ensuring affordability in access to quality energy for all. Second, ensuring that the dependence on depleting fossil fuels is minimised, thereby giving stability to the energy supply. Third, stressing development of green energy. Let us discuss implementation methods: (1) Improving energy efficiency in industrial, transport, residential and commercial sector to reduce the energy demand growth rate by 50%; (2) Dependence on fossil fuels as primary energy source to be brought under 50%; (3) Replacement of petroleum as a primary fuel source for transport by less carbon emitting or completely carbon neutral renewable fuels; (4) Based on above methods, reducing the net emission per unit energy consumption to half of the current rate, which means from the current 1.3 kg of CO2 per watt of power per year to less than 0.65 kg of CO2 per watt of power per year; (5) International collaboration in promoting green energy development methods with seamless flow of ideas and technologies.

Let me discuss the profile of renewable energy systems. First, consider solar power. The current high capital costs of solar power stations can be reduced by grid-locked 100 MW sized Very Large Scale Solar Photovoltaic (VLSPV) or Solar Thermal Power Stations. In the very near future, breakthroughs in nanotechnologies promise a significant increase in solar cell efficiencies from the current 15% values to over 50% levels. These would, in turn, reduce the cost of solar energy production. Scientific laboratories should mount a R&D programme for developing high efficiency CNT-based photo voltaic cells and also advancing the solar-thermal technology. Second, consider nuclear power. We will need to develop technology for a wider spectrum of fissile material. For example, India alone has one-fourth of the world?s thorium reserves. It is reported that thorium-fuelled reactors are safer than uranium-powered ones, using lesser fissile material, producing waste that is toxic for a shorter period of time, and being harder to weaponise. In fact, thorium can even feed off toxic plutonium waste to produce energy. And because the biggest cost in nuclear power is safety, and thorium reactors can?t melt down, they will eventually be cheaper too.

Now let me explain how India has used ?hard cooperation? with other nations based on its core competence to evolve world-class products and systems. The nation has experience in how to work with multiple countries in joint design, development, production and marketing of world class systems using the core competence of partnering nations. This methodology can be adopted in programmes of sustainable development and reduction of green house gases in an industrial setup. The challenge of reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and conserving the environment is a global one that would necessarily require global platforms where different nations can bring their core competencies to achieve cost competitive products and services for an international audience. Energy independence, thus, has to be a shared mission of all participating countries and societies, each working according to their core competence.

As we go about our daily lives, we are almost all of us engaged in the demolition of Gaia. Gaia is a thin spherical shell of matter that surrounds the incandescent interior of earth. It begins where the crystal rocks meet the magma of the Earth?s hot interior about 100 miles below the surface and proceeds another 100 miles outwords through the ocean and air to the even hotter thermosphere at the edge of space. It includes the biosphere and is a dynamic physiological system that has kept our planet fit for life for over three billion years. We add green house gases every hour of every day, as we drive to work, go shopping, visit friends or as we fly to some distant city. We add more gases as we keep our homes and work places cool in summer and warm in winter. The sum total of all our pollution has already added half a million, million tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, which has changed the world so completely that hardly any of our descendents will be there to see it. We will, by thinking selfishly only of the welfare of humans and ignoring Gaia, have caused our own extinction.

To overcome this situation, we need a portfolio of energy sources. If food can be synthesised by the chemical and biochemical industry from carbon dioxide, water and nitrogen then let us make it and give the earth a rest. We have to take global climate change seriously and immediately and then do our best to lessen the footprint of humans on Earth. Let us all work together to save the planet Earth for prosperity. Once again, let me congratulate all the winners of Green Business Leadership Awards 2010-2011. My best wishes to all the participants for success in the mission of making India a green, clean nation.

This is an edited excerpt of the former president APJ Abdul Kalam?s address during the FE-EVI Green Business Survey & Leadership Awards 2010-2011