Chandigarh: The growing Indian economy has led to a massive consumption of fossil fuels. As compared to a 75 per cent dependence on import of petroleum products now, the country’s dependence on imports will eventually be 90 per cent.
This was revealed by N.R. Raje, director, Centre for Alternative Energy Research, University of Petroleum, Dehradun, during a seminar on Renewable Energy and Climate Change, being organised by International Law Association (ILA) at PHD Chamber House here this evening. The Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Vijender Jain, who is the patron-in-chief of the ILA, was the chief guest on the occasion.
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Raje said of the 146.55 million metric tonnes of petroleum product consumption in India, the country produced just 33.99 million metric tonnes, while 110.86 million metric tonnes was imported.
“This means that the import bill was an astounding $45 billion. As the demand for the fossil fuels increases, this import bill will also increase. The only alternative is the utilisation of new and renewable energy and use of energy efficient equipment and practices.
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