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"Energy Security more Important During Recession"
Special Correspondent, The HinduCHENNAI: Energy security issues are likely to become more important than ever before in these times of great uncertainty caused by the global recession, Reinhold Babel, representative of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, a Munich-based agency that seeks to promote peace, democracy and development.
In his special remarks at the opening of a two-day international seminar on ‘Emerging Challenges to Energy Security in the Asia Pacific’ hosted by the Centre for Security Analysis, he said the impact of the recession on a critical sector like power generation held implications for businesses all over the world.
He hoped that experts attending the seminar would evolve inputs for policymakers at the national and international levels. The foundation’s mandate in India included vocational training for rural population and women’s empowerment.
K. Kesavapany, Director, Institute of South East Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore, who could not make it to the event, sent a message, in which he said energy security, which might have slid down the priority of governments owing to the recession, would top the agenda in a few years.
The phase of declining trade and large-scale layoffs should serve as a time to evolve affordable and environment-friendly energy sources. The dependence on hydrocarbons would continue until scientists achieved a breakthrough in a cheap energy source. It was read out by Daljit Singh, senior research fellow at the ISEAS. Earlier, V. R. Raghavan, president, CSA, India, set out the framework for the seminar.
The Hindu, 17 March 2009