The Government will look at putting in additional safeguards for environmental clearance to the proposed nuclear plant in Jaitapur, in the aftermath of an earthquake damaging Japanese nuclear power plants.
The Environment Ministry had recently given clearance to the proposed 10,000-MW nuclear power plant in Jaitapur in Maharashtra, which is facing opposition from the locals.
“The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd is relooking at design and safety aspects of the plant,” said the Environment Minister, Mr Jairam Ramesh, when asked whether there will be a review of clearance to Jaitapur nuclear plant.
He added, “This is appropriately a subject that has to be dealt with the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. Based on the technical reviews that the NPCIL does, if additional safeguards have to be built in as part of the environmental clearance, we will certainly look at it.”
Mr Ramesh was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the ‘CII Conclave on Business and Climate Change'.
GM crops
Replying to a query on the trials of genetically modified crops, Mr Ramesh said it will be carried out only after getting the permission of the State Governments.
Recently, Mr Ramesh had to cancel the Bt maize trials in Bihar being conducted by Monsanto India after the Chief Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, opposed it on the grounds it was being done without consulting the State Government.
Earlier, addressing the industry captains, Mr Ramesh re-emphasised the need to transform India from being a buyer of green technologies to becoming a world leader and supplier in areas such as solar, wind energy and coal gasification besides being a big potential market for environmental goods and services.
The country's efforts to curb green house gas emissions were beset with challenges such as the legacy issues of ageing and inefficient plants. These have prevented greater emission reduction targets from being achieved, and are high on the Government's priorities, he said.
India has made a voluntary, unilateral commitment to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 20-25 per cent by 2020 on the 2005 levels, and is all set to exceed that target, Mr Ramesh said.
Mr Mark Kenber, CEO, The Climate Group, strongly pushed for creation of prosperous, low carbon economies simply because there was no other alternative.
Quoting a HSBC study, Mr Kenber said the Indian market for environmental goods and services has a potential to touch $137 billion in the next 7-8 years; in comparison the world market is potentially $2.2 trillion.