Two-thirds of urban Indians support the use of nuclear power to meet the country’s energy needs.
BBC survey finds support in the rest of the world is more muted, Ukraine is dead-set against it.
NEW DELHI: Two-thirds of urban Indians support the use of nuclear power to meet the country’s energy needs. As opposed to this, Ukrainians are the strongest opponents of nuclear power as they suffered the world’s worst civilian nuclear disaster in 1986 when a reactor at Chernobyl suffered a meltdown.
The findings are part of a 19-nation opinion poll conducted by BBC World Service in major urban areas. The results have an error margin ranging from 2.5 to 4 per cent.
The survey was conducted in the run-up to the G8 energy summit in St Petersburg, Russia. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was scheduled to leave for the summit yesterday.
Interestingly, while the Indian government has taken a hard stand against Iran in the International Atomic Energy Agency, India and Egypt are the only countries among the 19 where a majority of the respondents (73 and 52 per cent, respectively) said they trust Iran as an energy supplier. Germans (86%) are particularly sceptical of Iran in this respect, followed by Americans (84%), Brazilians (83%), Italians (80%) and Israelis (80%).
The survey found that people around the world feel that major energy suppliers, especially Iran, withhold energy. When it comes to the biggest oil producer, Saudi Arabia, citizens of the United States, its close ally, are sceptical. Of the Americans, 57 per cent do not trust Saudi Arabia. Among Indians, the percentage is 52.
Eight out of ten of those polled felt that the energy policies of their respective governments are damaging the environment, destabilising the global economy, and increasing the risk of war.
There is strong worldwide support for government tax incentives for developing renewable energy (80%) along with increasing fuel efficiency standards for cars (67%). “But support for more nuclear energy was more muted - with only half of the respondents favouring nuclear energy to reduce reliance on oil and coal,” said a press statement from BBC World Service.
Indians (1,639) were the largest represented population in the survey of 19,000 individuals, followed by Russians (1,045). In India, the poll was conducted by C-Voter.
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