Seventeenth Darbari Seth Memorial Lecture: 'India moving to the centre stage of global energy scenario'

Dr Fatih Birol, Executive Director, IEA, delivered the Darbari Seth Memorial Lecture 2018 on 'The Global Energy Outlook and the Increasing Role of India'

In this lecture, Dr Fatih Birol, Executive Director, International Energy Agency (IEA), emphasised on India's growing role in the global energy outlook, its energy efficiency and energy access successes, the growing role of renewable energy, etc. Talking about a changing energy scenario, he said that India is moving to the centre stage and China’s new drive to “make the skies blue again” is recasting its role in energy.

He, however, added that investments in energy sector are critical for India. The country will add another European Union to its electricity generation by 2040 and the choices it makes will be important for developing technologies and economies of scale.

Touching upon air pollution, he said that it too is an energy issue and takes many lives every year. The IEA is working with many governments to move people to clean cooking options and he said that the Ujjwala scheme is cited as an example to other governments in this regard.

See his full presentation here