This does not mean that the current efforts to develop indigenous hydrocarbon resources and secure international oil/gas through equity or long term purchase agreements should be diluted. Nor does it mean that we should slacken our push to commercialise renewable energy. But what it does mean is that we have to acknowledge that supply-side efforts will not be enough to remove this potential impediment to growth. It means that given the huge scale of our economy and the lead times needed to develop new energy, bio fuels, wind, solar will not materially replace hydrocarbons in our energy mix and that we will remain vulnerable to the vagaries of the hydrocarbons market for the foreseeable future.

What precisely should the government do to capture this value and through which sector can be debated — although I am sure transport and power will offer the greatest opportunity. But what must not be debated is the potential. Demand conservation and energy efficiency is the bridge between economic growth and carbon mitigation. It should consequently be the centrepiece of government policy.

The writer is chairman of the Shell Group of Companies in India. Views expressed are personal