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President at World Energy Forum :
Food security as important as alternative energy
* Agricultural land should be spared
* ‘Avoid using food crops for fuel production’
Countries must bear in mind that in the search for alternative
energy, sources agricultural land of today and tomorrow must not be
used. We must not let the hunger for alternative energy lead to an
increase in hunger for food. The use of food crops for fuel production
must be avoided to prevent the spread of today’s threat to food
security, caused by turning food crops into fuel crops. The food energy
for peoples’ lives should not be made the driving energy for cars,
President Mahinda Rajapaksa said.
“In addition to monetary assistance, the transfer of technologies on
sustainable energy generation to developing nations is now an imperative
because a technology must
move into economic viability for developing countries to embrace
sustainable and clean energy,” the President said addressing the World
Energy Forum in Dubai yesterday.
“Any policy that would not consider the imbalance in the ability of
developed and developing nations to absorb new technologies is likely to
be rejected by the people. Such measures might be viewed as unjust,
unilateral and self-serving of an influential few.
Therefore it is extremely important to balance the right of every
nation to development with our shared desire to have a sustainable and
Greener planet,” he said. A modern economy needs to secure cheap,
reliable and efficient energy resources. Today, all nations face the
challenge of securing such resources. It is important to strike a
balance between the ever-growing demand for energy and the need to
harness energy resources in a sustainable and equitable manner. Our
challenge is to maintain this balance for the benefit of future
generations, President Rajapaksa said. |
