Challenges for Sustainable Energy Development in India

The scope of environmental concerns of energy cycles (from extraction to use to disposal) has become increasingly broader. The first concerns pertained to the visible pollutants of the outdoor environment with localized effects. These have broadened to include inter alia social concerns in sustainable development and environmental problems increasing both spatially (indoor, regional, and global impacts) and temporally (from immediate to delayed and long-term effects). In India, successes have been modest in addressing environmental consequences of the energy sector. When the affected parties include the elites and the urban middle classes, the problem is more likely to be addressed than when it affects the poor and unorganized. Visible pollution has frequently been curtailed; invisible pollutants continue to be emitted. Air pollution has sometimes been controlled; controlling water pollution is less than exemplary. While the world is on its way to addressing stratospheric ozone depletion, climate change continues to defy an acceptable solution. Based on my personal professional experience of the past three decades, I attempt in this paper to provide a historical perspective of the successes, challenges, and unresolved implementation issues in the energy environment arena in India.