ABSTRACT
The current debate on India’s energy security is framed by three key issues: energy needs related to growth, the stark energy poverty in the country, and the implications of its energy paths to future contribution to climate change. They all involve some form of risk: energy poverty has environmental health implications,1 involves special burdens on women and children, and results in a lack of educational facilities and jobs and reduced opportunities. Energy and growth linkages can lead to possible competition over securing resources and even traditional security confl icts. This is especially pertinent for large growing economies like India and China, and large developed economies such as the United States that depend on external energy sources. India’s energy mix, as that of most other countries, is dominated by fossil fuels, and global climate risks are linked with how a country chooses to fuel its economy in the future. It is within this linked energyenvironment-development context that the understanding of, and ways to address, India’s energy security concerns need to be located.
