 Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Sept 2: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today called upon engineers, scientists and academic institutions to harness Jammu and Kashmir's abundant biomass resources to develop locally suited, economically viable and environmentally sustainable solutions for reducing dependence on fossil fuels and decarbonizing the economy.
The Chief Minister was addressing the inaugural session of the 41st National Convention of Chemical Engineers and National Seminar on "Biomass: A Sustainable Resource for Decarbonizing the Economy", organized under the aegis of the Chemical Engineering Division Board of The Institution of Engineers (India) (IEI) in association with the Department of Chemical Engineering, NIT Srinagar, at the IEI J&K State Centre here.
Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary, Vice Chancellor University of Kashmir Prof. Nelofer Khan, Director NIT Srinagar Anurag Mishra, Chairman IEI J&K State Centre Ferdous Ahad Bhat, Chairman Chemical Engineering Division Board, FIE, Prof. G. Madhu, besides engineers, academicians and other experts attended the two-day national convention and seminar.
Highlighting the significance of the convention being held in Jammu & Kashmir after a gap of several decades, the Chief Minister said the last National Convention of the IEI held in J&K had taken place in early 1989.
"For us, to have all of you present for the 41st National Convention, organized by our own NIT Srinagar and the Chemical Engineering Division Board, is a significant moment," he said, while expressing appreciation to the organizers for choosing biomass and decarbonization as the central theme of the convention.
The Chief Minister said the need to reduce dependence on carbon-based fuels had become increasingly urgent, both from the perspective of energy security and the growing environmental consequences of using fossil-fuel.
He said recent pressures on fuel supplies had underlined the vulnerabilities associated with excessive dependence on carbon-based energy sources, while the consequences of unchecked fossil-fuel use were becoming increasingly visible in the form of global warming and climate-related disasters.
"Those of us who are roughly around my age or maybe a little older have seen with our own eyes the way in which our glaciers are retreating and shrinking," Omar Abdullah said, highlighting the particular vulnerability of the Himalayan region to climate change.
Referring to the Thajiwas glacier near Sonamarg, the Chief Minister said the extent of glacier retreat could be understood from personal experience.
"We have only to travel two hours out of Srinagar to go to Sonamarg to see the Thajiwas glacier there," he said, recalling that it was once possible to reach the foot of the glacier after a short walk, whereas today it requires a considerably longer trek. He said such changes offered a stark reminder of the environmental consequences of the continued and unchecked use of fossil fuels.
However, the Chief Minister cautioned that moving away from a carbon-based economy could not be achieved simply by switching from one energy source to another overnight.
"Economically viable, sustainable, environmentally friendly solutions are the need of the hour," he said, stressing that alternative energy solutions must be capable of competing economically with established sources of power.
Omar Abdullah pointed out that Jammu & Kashmir possessed significant biomass resources generated through agriculture, horticulture, forests, municipal waste and increasing consumption.
"We are sitting on a wealth of biomass whether we like it or not," he said, adding that the challenge was to develop effective mechanisms for converting this resource into useful energy.
The Chief Minister said Jammu and Kashmir had so far struggled to develop a workable and sustainable model for waste-to-energy, despite generating sufficient waste to support such initiatives.
He observed that the economic viability of waste-to-energy projects remained a major challenge, particularly when compared with relatively cheaper sources such as solar and hydropower.
At the same time, he stressed that economic considerations could not be the only factor determining the future of waste management and energy policy.
"We will have to do it," he said, underlining the need to address not only the problem of legacy waste but also the continuously increasing generation of organic waste that could potentially be converted into energy.
The Chief Minister also recalled his efforts during his previous tenure to explore the possibility of converting plant material harvested from Dal Lake into biofuel, in collaboration with higher education institutions, particularly the agricultural university.
He said that while the idea had so far remained largely at the discussion stage, such initiatives needed to be pursued with greater determination and through practical experimentation.
Drawing from a personal experience at a boarding school in Himachal Pradesh, the Chief Minister illustrated how seemingly unconventional ideas could eventually become successful and practical solutions. |