'India has to continuously engage with global partners for new energy future'
New Delhi: Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan has said that Energy is a global industry and oil is truly a global commodity, and hence our engagement with the global energy community has to be continuous. Speaking at CERA Week conference here today, he said that India cannot work in isolation, as from a global perspective, global market shifts, technological disruptions, financial markets & paper trading, and possible disruption in the form of energy transition are shaping the future of energy security. He said that any action on energy must take into account the global consensus achieved by the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the "Paris Agreement" of 2015 and decisions of the G20 Leaders' meeting in Hamburg in 2017 that regard energy security as one of the guiding principles for energy transition. He appreciated the efforts of IHS team for bringing the flagship event out of Houston and making India its home away from home for the second time.
Pradhan said that India has taken a lead in International Solar Alliance (ISA) with 60 solar-rich countries. Two weeks back as part of the International Solar Alliance gathering in New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned that ISA can potentially replace OPEC as the key block of supplier of energy in the world. With the falling prices of solar, we can easily achieve his idea of "One World, One Sun, One Grid". He said that We are trying to accomplish PM's vision of the energy sector – of ensuring energy access, energy security, energy affordability and energy sustainability. As the third largest consumer of energy and one of the fastest growing – in a volatile global environment, we cannot just rely on one source of energy. As Prime Minister had mentioned last year, like horses in Sun God's chariot, India will harness all sources of available energy - solar, wind, hydro, coal, oil, gas, nuclear, bio-fuels etc. Mentioning about the recent progress made on the reforms and implementation of initiatives, Pradhan said that in our efforts towards providing universal access of clean cooking fuel to residences, we have the Prime Minister Ujjwala Scheme, under which we had kept a target of reaching 50 million households in 3 years' time. We achieved that milestone ahead of schedule and increased the target
to 80 million.
