If you don't go green, I pity you: UNEP chief

If India wants to gain over China, it has to look at building green businesses that promote sustainable development as this will be a crucial factor to drive growth in the future, Erik Solheim, the 6th Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme and former Under Secretary General at the UN told ET on a recent visit to Chennai."If you (Indian businesses) don't go green, I pity you because the others will go green," he said simply. "If you want all the jobs to go to China, then (you're) welcome to (but) I don't think that's what India wants. India wants all the jobs here."Further, he said India has the potential to be a global giant in the space of conscious, green and sustainable businesses. He highlighted the advantage that India already has in terms of its solar capabilities."India is leading the charge and is the second biggest solar nation in the world and the fourth biggest wind nation in the world," Solheim explained. "Prime Minister Modi has prioritised solar in particular very heavily and you see both big solar farms and small small scale, village scale solar. In green hydrogen India will soon be very successful."However, he said that the country has an important and critical task ahead in terms of cleaning up the rivers like the Ganga and other large rivers that are extremely polluted.Further, he spoke of the need for the government to provide an initial impetus in terms of promoting electric vehicles (EVs), which he believed is the future of sustainable transportation. In this regard, he said India could take a leaf out of the way Norway has dealt with promoting EVs."When we decided, from the government side, that we really wanted to promote electric vehicles, we first changed the tax structure, so they become cheaper relative to the combustion engine cars," Solheim said. "And then city governments made charging stations in the streets and many employers installed charging stations in their parking lots. But that was the beginning, after some time the market took over."He said that gasoline stations in Norway were then reduced to places where people went to buy things like sausages, newspapers, chocolate, tobacco and the like. And in a bid to lure customers back to their stations, they didn't have much of a choice but to set up charging stations."In a place like India, you need an introductory offer to get people hooked on electric vehicles," Solheim said. "And in the early days in a city like Chennai it will do well to provide some charging stations. But when it starts rolling, the market will take over, because lots of people can make money selling electricity. So then the role of the government is much less and after some time may not be needed at all."Solheim said that we're in the midst of the fourth Industrial revolution and the few sectors that will witness tremendous growth and will become crucial include biotech and medicine, digital transformation and green and sustainable businesses.Norwegian companies are also looking to expand their footprint in the Indian market and are keen to tap the potential that the country offers, Ambassador of Norway to India, Hans Jacob Frydenlund told ET. He said that in the past, these companies have preferred China to India owing to the predictability that the country offered. "India, for a Norwegian company, is not an easy market to come into," Frydenlund said. "The political system is different. The market is big, and for an outsider it is difficult to get in and get a clear impression. The competition is also fierce. So very often, you need to have made a very deliberate strategic decision to go into the market."He added that the ease of doing business has certainly gotten better and that the proof of this lies in the number of big companies that are thriving in the country, particularly in places of substantial economic activity like Mumbai. He said the main areas of focus that Norway will look at in India concern integrated ocean management, hydrogen, and renewable energy in addition to broad heads of climate and environment.

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