Globally demand of goods and services from Asian countries has been consistently increasing since the last decade many due to low production cost. Increases in economic growth has also led to rise in carbon emission. Moving toward greener economy is the need of hour.
In Asia, there are huge differences among countries in term of demography, stage of economic development and other economic indicators due to which the impact of economic activity on environment is also different.
In India, since time immemorial, the country has remained the hub of climate protection and environmental sustainability. A substantial chunk of folklore literature and practices geared at taking a holistic view of the natural resources remain the solid foundation on which mainstream narrative of Indian society is built.
However, there has been a renewed focus over the climate protection in the recent past. India’s international image has been on the path of widening its reach and clout of late, and now India has assumed the G-20 Presidency. India is emerging as an inspiration for countries across the globe, particularly on the fact that how economic development and conservation of environment can go hand in hand. India has become the fastest in renewal energy capacity addition among major economies that had added over 100 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by the end of 2021 with the vision of 500 gigawatts by 2030.
India now has the lowest cost for large-scale solar power in the world-another spectacular achievement of its traditional skill at supply-side process innovation. India has tremendous potential to lead the world in green energy and she will forward the cause of global good apart from generating green jobs.
With the enormous potential to lead the world in green energy sector and generate green jobs, the Government of India invited each global energy player to invest in India. It must be pointed out that India achieved the target of 40% contributions from non-fossil fuels in the installed electricity capacity nine years before the target date, of 10% ethanol blending in petrol five months before time and is next aiming to strike the 20% ethanol blending in petrol by 2025-26 instead of 2030 further ahead.
Whether it is the initiative to deal with the challenges of climate change through Mission LiFE or showing the world a path towards solution through the Panchamrit (five ambrosia: a proposal of five-fold strategy for India to play its part in helping the world get closer to 1.5 degrees Celsius declared at the 26th Conference of Parties (CoP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in November 2021 at Glasgow), India has always set an example.
By choosing a path where economy and ecology can both co-exist happily, India has been able to protect the environment without blocking a large number of infrastructural projects. While the renewable energy capacity in 2014 was pegged at 20GW, the ambitious target set for 2022 was 100 GW of renewable energy capacity. However, India has been able to achieve this goal much before the decided timeline, ensuring that the cost of solar energy drastically reduced from INR 16/unit to INR 2/unit as on date.
Also, Vietnam has identified green growth, and green transformation as important growth engines in the long term and is actively implementing a roadmap to realise such goals.
Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha made the statement as he attended and spoke at a session with corporations and investment funds on digital transformation, innovative start-ups, green finance and sustainable development held on the beginning of this year within the framework of the 53rd World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.
According to the Vietnam News Agency correspondent in Geneva, the dialogue was attended by Philipp Rosler, former Deputy Chancellor of Germany, Honorary Consul of Vietnam in Switzerland, and leaders and representatives of a number of corporations and multinational investment funds.
Deputy PM Ha said Vietnam was actively implementing a plan to amend and supplement the legal framework in order to mobilise and encourage green finance, technology, production, and investment, as well as properly implement green transition, energy transition, transition to a circular economy and low carbon economy.
In addition, with the need for digital transformation at all levels and in all fields, Vietnam has strong demand for cooperation in digital transformation and exploitation of digital resources, he noted.
Deputy PM Ha called on corporations to step up investment, support Vietnam in green growth, and well implement international commitments on sustainable development and climate change, including UNCOP26 commitments on net zero by 2050, and to raise more capital to implement the Just Energy Transition Partnership.
The investors expressed their strong impression of Vietnam’s commitment to net zero made at UNCOP26 as well as the negotiation process for the Just Energy Transition Partnership, wishing to accompany the Vietnamese Government.
