Sustainability and policy - Climate Change: Biological and Human Aspects - page 499

500

400

300

200

Total energy consumed

100

Fossil fuel consumed
Fossil fuel produced

0

1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

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Fig. 8.7 India'sfossilcarbondomesticproductionandconsumptiontrends.

that India, should it wish, could sustain its increasing coal production for much of the
21st century.
With regards to India's oil deficit, it produces just a third of the oil it consumes. Its oil
consumption (in energy terms) is equivalent to just over half of its coal consumption
and around four times its gas consumption. As with China, India has some non-fossil
energy (represented in Figure 8.7 by the difference between total fossil fuel consumed
and the total energy consumed). This non-fossil contribution is increasing but not
nearly as fast as its fossil energy demand and in turn its domestic production of
fossil fuel is increasing at a slower rate than consumption. Therefore, proportionally
speaking, India has a greater fossil sustainability problem than China in that the gap
between what it can produce domestically and its consumption is already increasing
steadily.
With regards to energy policy, India's energy-policy formulation and implement-
ation is split between several ministries: one for each fuel, including electricity, and
also one for energy planning. Since the 1980s India's policy has barely changed and
this is reflected in the way it produces and consumes energy and fossil carbon (Figure
8.7). Foreign investment, especially from Japan in the mid-1990s, has enabled the
nation to develop its coal resources. However, around the turn of the millennium it
was considered that the lack of a comprehensive energy policy had been a barrier
to significant further investment and so the government published its Hydrocarbon
Vision 2025 report. This states that India should revise its foreign ownership regula-
tions for refinery operations to allow 100% foreign ownership but be more restrictive
of foreign control of petroleum trading. It also established a goal of India supplying
90% of its own petroleum. However, attempts to increase domestic oil production
have had minimal success since the mid-1980s while demand has increased. So, like
China, India has a net oil deficit but, unlike China, India's domestic production has
effectively remained static since the mid-1980s.