By Arul Louis
United Nations, May 21 (IANS): Defending its reliance on coal-generated electricity, India has called on developed countries to own up responsibility for 150 years of environmental abuse and provide low-cost funding to developing countries to grow cleaner energy sources.

Piyush Goyal, India's Minister of State for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy, said on Wednesday switching to costlier renewable and efficient energy projects from the cheaper conventional ones required low cost, long-term financing.

"The developed world, which has over the last 150 years enjoyed this low cost power for its own growth and prosperity must share this responsibility and come forward proactively in a much deeper engagement with the developing countries," he said.

Participating at two UN forums on sustainable energy, Goyal said India is going to meet its clean energy goals: "We will make it happen whatever it takes. But what is the world's contribution to this effort? Where are the big bucks, where is the risk mitigation coming from the rest of the world?"

The Green Climate Fund was set up with a target of $100 billion but has raised only $10 billion and not a dollar of it has been invested so far, he said.

Multilateral agencies were operating with the mindset of the private sector rather than having a developmental outlook, he said. Their sovereign guarantees for financing projects only reduces the cost by one percent. He could do without that and instead opt for financing without restrictions, he added.

Goyal lashed out against Western campaigns to ban coal-based electricity projects and domestic manufacture, while he reiterated India's twin goals of providing uninterrupted energy for all by 2019 and being ecologically responsible.

"We cannot eradicate poverty, which is the overarching objective of (the UN) Sustainabl Development Goals and the new Development Agenda, without ensuring universal energy access," he said.

"We have 56 million homes or 280 million Indians, almost the size of the population of the US, who lack access to the basic electricity." he added. "More than 500 million are still deprived of access to clean energy fuels."

To provide them electricity, he said, "Just as in all other countries, including the developed world, coal will continue to remain the mainstay of our energy related needs for the foreseeable future. In all fairness, it would not be correct to say or to expect India to move away from coal when we are at the cusp of our developmental journey."

"I cannot go to a poor person in my country who barely gets two square meals in a day and tell him that what happened in the last 150 years is now his responsibility," he said.

Defending the role of coal in the energy sector, Goyal said it is cheaper and can be bundled with more expensive renewable power to provide affordable energy for the people and it provides base power load. But India was also "shifting to cleaner coal using ultra super critical technology for coal-base power generation," he added.

The ban on financing coal-based projects imposed by some countries claiming to protect the environment is counterproductive, he said.

"I want to replace all my old plants with some 30 more efficient ones for which I will need an investment of nearly US $40-50 billion," he added. "If you are not going to fund my efforts, it may mean that I will have to run my old inefficient plants and fume more pollution in the world."

Criticising the Western restrictions on domestic manufacturing of clean energy equipment, he said that developing nations cannot be dependent on imports. "I think the world should recognize that domestic manufacturing and domestic capacity building is an integral part of the planned scale of renewable energy."