Living with less is not deprivation: Deepak Gadhia

  • | Friday | 18th January, 2019

We need to understand that living with less is not deprivation and living with more is not prosperity," said Deepak Gadhia of Muni Seva Ashram. "Our efforts are not going to work if we don't bring about a change in the role models that we create. There is a need to ensure that a collaborative effort is put in place to combat global warming including behavioural changes. Right now our role models are those who own several things, are rich and use energy guzzlers. Gadhia, who also owns a company called Sunrise CSP, that works with solar energy said that technology alone was not enough.

There is a need to ensure that a collaborative effort is put in place to combat global warming including behavioural changes. "Our efforts are not going to work if we don't bring about a change in the role models that we create. Right now our role models are those who own several things, are rich and use energy guzzlers. We need to understand that living with less is not deprivation and living with more is not prosperity," said Deepak Gadhia of Muni Seva Ashram. He was speaking at a session on 'System transformation for Global Warming of 1.5-degree Celsius' organised by the Ahmedabad University's Global Centre for Environment and Energy. Gadhia, who also owns a company called Sunrise CSP, that works with solar energy said that technology alone was not enough. "We need to adapt technology to the demands of the end user," said Gadhia while explaining why solar cookers did not find popularity. Shobhakar Dhakal, professor, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand said that 70 per cent of global emissions came from cities. "Urbanisation has a direct effect on co2 emission. The rise in per capita income and co2 emission is simultaneous," said Dhakal. He, however, said it provides ample opportunities too. Dhakal warned that though plans were being implemented at the national level to help combat climate change the ground level impact of it was yet to be seen. Rajan Rawal, director, Centre for Advanced Building Efficiency, CEPT University, who spoke on future buildings and managing demand side transitions said that as far as home air conditioning was concerned, such units have not progressed in energy efficiency. "A lot of it is because of lethargy and lack of enough competition. The room air conditioning market has around 400 players globally while there are 5000 such players for the white goods," said Rawal.

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