‘We need a business case for clean tech transfer’

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: Yvo de Boer heads the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at a very crucial time. There is an unprecedented spotlight on the climate change issue today. The formal negotiations on the successor regime to the Kyoto treaty on reducing carbon emissions began at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali late last year. The executive secretary was in Delhi recently to speak at Teri’s Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2008. FE’s Rajiv Tikoo spoke to him to get an insight into the role of the private sector in the climate change negotiations. Excerpts:

You attended a CEOs’ forum at the Teri summit. You had a meeting with business leaders at the climate change conference in Bali, too. How productive is your engagement with the private sector?

We have got quite a lot of inputs from the private sector. The sector is giving us two messages. First, the governments need to provide a clear sense of direction and right policy frameworks. Secondly, there is a need for mechanisms for financial and technical cooperation that will push into the market technologies that can’t make it on their own. So, the private sector has a very important role to play in designing frameworks from their point of view. The International Energy Agency has calculated that about $20 trillion will be required over the next 20 years to meet growing energy demands. And 86% of the investment is expected to come from the private sector. So, you need the private sector to tell you what would work and what wouldn’t.

What is your impression about the Indian private sector’s position on the issue?

I have the feeling that Indian industry is only beginning to see the possibilities of benefits that international cooperation can offer. With so many small and medium enterprises, the country should have a big interest in reducing its energy bill, and at the same time limiting emissions in this sector. We should be focusing more on this target group.

Most of the carbon credit trade takes place among developed countries. How can the share of developing countries increase?