Energy security is critical to sustain India's growth: CEA

Nageswaran stressed the importance of continued funding for fossil fuels, even as India moves towards a better balance of renewables in the energy mix.

- Gulveen Aulakh

Energy security, including the use of fossil fuels, will be the single most crucial factor in sustaining India’s growth rate, chief economic advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said on Thursday, amid mounting worries over geopolitical instability and the impact of climate change.

“Energy is going to be an important driver for economic growth and it is energy security that is coming under a lot of pressure thanks to geopolitical developments and thanks to climate change, etc. (For) India, if at all there is a single most important worry in my mind for sustaining the growth rate that we have been able to achieve in the last two to three years, it is energy security," he said at the CII annual general meeting.

Nageswaran stressed the importance of continued funding for fossil fuels, even as India moves towards a better balance of renewables in the energy mix. This, he said, was necessary to not jeopardize growth.

He said financial institutions should look at the overall environmental costs when evaluating green projects, and be aware of ‘green washing’—projects that pass off as green but actually end up damaging the environment through unintended consequences.