Puducherry : The organizers of the World Resource Forum, which recently concluded its global meet at Davos, Switzerland, have conferred a best presentation award on Dr Tasneem Abbasi of Pondicherry University*. Dr Abbasi’s specially invited oration on environmental impact of wind energy was adjudicated as one of the four highlights of the meet and has been given an award ‘for the best presentation concerning resource efficiency and governance’.
In her oration in the plenary, Dr Tasneem Abbasi had presented findings of her research which reveal that if use of wind energy is increased world-wide it will also have a similarly adverse effect on the climate as fossil fuels are causing at present. Elaborating on it Dr Tasneem Abbasi had said that so far only a mere 0.2% of the world’s energy needs are being met by wind energy. At such an small extent of use, the negative effects of wind energy extraction are not noticeable. But once large number of wind farms are installed all over the world to meet 20% or more of the global energy demand (as is envisaged by EU, USA, and others) several adverse effects will come to the fore, including climate change.
Referring to her other work on the environmental impact of renewable energy sources―which has received international recognition―Dr Tasneem Abbasi had added that deployment of other renewable energy sources such as solar, biomass, and small hydro to meet sizeable portions of the world’s energy demand will similarly have adverse impacts. All renewable energy sources are ‘clean’ only when used with great moderation, she had asserted, adding that a drastic cut in energy consumption across the world is the only viable means to halt global warming and ecodegradation.
