Notes on green energy and sustainability from the 94th Indian Science Congress

Some interesting ideas and visions are coming from the 94th Indian Science Congress that kicked off in the southern temple town of Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, yesterday. This year's congress theme is 'Planet Earth' and the growing challenges of global energy security, climate change and environmental degradation:

Human beings have been exploring the Earth’s evolution since time immemorial to understand the processes responsible for the generation of her resources, particularly hydrocarbons and minerals. The ever-increasing demand of energy, mineral resources and safe drinking water for the burgeoning population is of great concern due to finiteness of natural resources. The forecast of Indian Monsoon systems is still a big challenge. The issue of climate change associated with global warming leading to serious consequences such as rainfall variability, sea-level changes, glacial melting, frequency of cyclones and hurricanes needs to be addressed. [...] However, more integrative investigations of the planet earth are needed to improve the quality of life with least adverse impact on the environment to achieve our goal of developing and sustaining a knowledge society.

The unsustainable West
In his inaugural address, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh slammed the West, accusing it of wasting the Earth's resources to sustain truly unsustainable lifestyles. He stressed that in principle these natural resources belong to all people, and not to a tiny elite:

We, in the developing countries, cannot afford to ape the West in terms of its environmentally wasteful lifestyles. Equally, developed industrial countries must realize that they too must alter their consumption patterns so that so few do not draw upon so much of the Earth’s resources. The developing world cannot accept a freeze in global inequity. We are today living in an increasingly globalised, increasingly interdependent world. The challenge before all of us is to make this growing interdependence of Nations a win-win game rather than a game which leaves two-third of humanity at the bottom rung of social and economic ladder. -- Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

The West's technological and scientific advances could only emerge under the regime of 'modernity', a cultural and economic system that relies on the use of abundant natural resources and social inequality. The birth of this modernity was the result of a colonisation and exploitation process that violently subjected populations in what is now the 'third world'. This process continues unto this very day. Meanwhile the wasteful use of the world's resources by this tiny elite has caused environmental problems that now affect all people on the planet. It is therefor logical, Singh says, that the West shares its technological and scientific knowledge with the South, in order to tackle these problems:
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Singh: "The measures that the global community takes to protect our environment and deal with climate change therefore must be equitable in their impact on the development prospects of the developing world. The new environment-friendly technologies being developed must be shared and made available to us as international public good so that our planet is saved. We can and must use the inventiveness and ingenuity of our knowledge to find new pathways to growth. But in the world increasingly interdependent as it is today, this must be a shared effort. It must be an effort that enables the poor to improve their quality of life, their well-being, their consumption levels without being forced to pay the price for the profligacy and excessive consumption of the rich and the super rich."

Reverse brain drain
But besides relying on the West's knowledge and science, Singh advocates a reverse brain drain. Thousands of brilliant Indian scientists are working in Europe and the US. India must tap their combined skills to solve the enormous challenges for the future.

"The global Indian diaspora is a vast pool of knowledge that we must tap, especially in the sciences. We must try and attract the best and brightest of our scientists abroad to return home and participate in the adventure of building a knowledge-based economy here."

Singh announced concrete ideas to make this happen: a new Indian visa regime, new employment procedures and remuneration systems, especially in universities and Government institutions. Moreover, the Government is committed to doubling the annual expenditure on science and technology from less than one per cent of GDP to two per cent in the next five years.

Stressing the need to make science research "an attractive career option", Singh said while more and better students should be attracted, "this will not happen unless younger scientists are groomed to take over top positions". "Only when students see prospects of early reward and recognition, will they be induced to tread the often lonely and toilsome trail of advanced research", he said. The Prime Minister added that economic incentives and rewards should be so oriented as to attract more bright students.

Renewable energy and the Second Green revolution
Noting that the return from huge investments in developing energy sources was "far from adequate", Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked scientists and engineers to find alternative sources of energy supply and energy conservation technologies.

"India must find alternative sources of energy supply. We will need bio-fuel, solar energy, photo voltaic, nuclear and almost all sources, which do not burden the conventional sources of energy supply," he stressed.

Ecologically sustainable supply and use of energy resources is one of the biggest challenge to which scientists in India must find answers for, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday.

"The human race has been able to discover and invent new sources of energy that have benefited life on earth. But these also endanger life and our planet," the prime minister told the 94th Indian Science Congress here.

"The science of climate change is still nascent. This is why Indian scientists must engage in exploring the links between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. You must also examine its impacts on our monsoons."

There is also a need for a Second Green Revolution but it has to be "more holistic" than the first one and extend application of science and technology to forest conservation and management and new models of water conservation.

Nobel laureates say biogas and solar
Nobel Laureate, Hartmut Michel, delivering a lecture on science and technology for sustainable development, advised Indian farmers to exploit the potential of biogas, which has proved to be a major energy source in his country. He said German farmers earned more money selling energy produced from biogas than selling milk. One farmer had earned as much as 1 million euros from his farm, he said.

Another solution was super photovoltaic cells set up on earth’s major deserts for converting the solar energy into cheap electricity, Michel said. Electricity generated this way could then be transmitted using superconducting cables to other countries. These fields could be set up in the deserts of Sahara, Mexico, Nevada, Gobi and Central Australia, and harmful greenhouse gases could thus be avoided, he said.

Noble Laureate Aaron Ciechanover, made an appeal for a global focus on basic sciences rather than applications for the research they were funding. “If you don’t have basic science, there is no applied science...Governments should not think of only applications for the research they were funding,” said Ciechanover, who shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2004. The Israeli scientist, who won the Nobel for research into the process of protein degradation, cited his own work to justify his “experience” that good science would naturally lead to useful applications. He pointed out that his own research had ended in the development of drugs for diseases caused during the process of protein degradation within cells in the body. India, he pointed out, was committed to doubling its investment in science and technology from 1 per cent of its GDP to 2 per cent.

More information:
The Hindu: PM seeks reverse brain drain - Jan. 4, 2007

Press Information Bureau (Indian Gov't): 'Developing world cannot accept a freeze in global inequity' - PM's address at the 94th Indian Science Congress - Jan. 4. 2007

Indian Express: Nobel laureate urges governments to focus on basic sciences - Jan. 4, 2007

Indian Express: West’s green drive can’t be at poor world’s cost: PM - Jan. 4, 2007

Reuters South Africa, India's PM says West is environmentally wasteful - Jan. 3, 2007

ZDNet India, Tap Indian diaspora's scientific prowess: Manmohan Singh - Jan. 4, 2007

India eNews: Find eco-sustainable energy, PM tells scientists - Jan. 3, 2007

Zee News: Develop alternative sources of energy: PM - Jan. 3, 2007