ARUN SINGH: In my undergrad I studied chemical engineering
there, after which I joined an oil refinery.
Worked there for a couple of years.
So I was working as an engineer, and gradually I moved away
from it towards doing policy.
I think one important reason for that
was, when I was working with the oil refinery,
I felt that if I stick with this,
there would be a very narrow space of work
that I would be confined to.
I might do great in this narrow space,
but the domain would be limited.
Whereas if I decide to do something related to policy,
whereas if I decide to look at more broader concerns that
shape an energy and environment policy,
then that would expand the area in which I can work.
And I think that was why I decided
to move away from what could have
been a very lucrative career.
My interest has moved more towards looking
at the financial component of these changes,
because a lot has happened in technology,
and it's still evolving.
But because of the uncertainties associated
with where is this going, what's the future
of these technologies that are coming up,
the financing component remains challenging
and remains very exciting.
So for example, in many of the developing countries,
including India and places in Africa,
solar power is expected to be a very good solution for both
addressing climate change as well as expanding electricity
access.
But because of the uncertainty in returns,
because of the low willingness to pay off
many of the consumers in rural areas,
financing the expansion of solar power
has still been a difficult issue.
It was very important to see why there
are very valid reasons for things to work out slowly
when they are with the government,
because I would interact with government
officials on a daily basis, with pollution regulators in India
on a daily basis.
And I would actually see that there
are valid reasons and valid concerns
because of which things move slowly in the bureaucracy
and in the government.
I happened to interview different stakeholders
involved with solar energy in India, including
companies including people from the government and so on.
And one common theme that I figured
was that the government does have
a lot of very favorable policies,
and there is a perception among developers
that these policies are helpful.
However, at the same time there was also the concern
that the implementation of these policies
may not be going on very smoothly,
so that's something where even if the government has
good intentions and is doing a lot,
there is still room for improvement.
One very big concern with developing countries
which also ties in with the work that I'm doing here--
so it's specifically talking about India, for example--
is that there is still a huge shortage of electricity.
Electricity access in particular.
Around 200 million people still don't have access
to electricity.
While tackling that challenge, the developing countries
are also expected to make sure that they do not
add a lot of burden, they do not end up
emitting a lot of greenhouse gases
and add more to climate change.
So managing that balance becomes difficult for developing
countries, I would say, because coal
continues to be a cheap source of power,
particularly for India.
But that's not a source of power that India could aggressively
deploy in the coming future.
There are certain challenges particular to developing
countries in financing cost as well.
So for example, the cost of debt in developing countries
is higher than the cost of debt elsewhere.
Low interest rates in India are typically 8% or 9%
as compared to 3% or 4% in the US, or in the west.
So that I think puts developing countries definitely
in a tough spot, which is also why they have
been demanding climate finance.
I would want to have a lot more solar power
in the world, many electric vehicles on roads.
And I think if these two things come together--
although there are many technological and financial and
political challenges in these things coming together.
But if this happens, I think this would be a huge change.