India should have a robust domestic strategy for climate change, rather than being dictated by international negotiations, environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh said. The minister said Indian corporates should shun old mindsets to aggressively invest manpower and money in green technology, an area of immense business opportunity which China is already betting on in a big way.
?Chinese have sensed a business opportunity and are taking a strategic gamble that they will be the world?s leading supplier of green technology by 2020. We see all this as a threat. Some of our industry associations are still stuck in the old mindset. They should see this (GT) as a great opportunity,? Ramesh said. During a wide-ranging interview with FE, Ramesh said , ?all our thinking on climate change is dictated by international negotiations. We have never had a strategic domestic agenda.?
While stressing on the commonality of interests that drives the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) which helped them to negotiate from a position of strength at the recent Copenhagen summit, the minister said these countries? domestic strategies would, however, diverge. ?The Chinese have started to think of the peaking year as between 2025 and 2030. So have the South Africans,? he said. But India was part of a different ball game because even as the third largest emitter by 2020, the country would account for only 8-9% of world?s greenhouse gas emissions, which in per capita terms, would still be ?very low? at 2-2.5 tonnes.
Doubtful if China would ever agree to internationally-binding legal commitment on emission reduction, he reiterated that ?India is prepared to reflect its domestic commitment internationally in any form other than a legally binding framework.?