India has a market value of ?191 billion in low-carbon and environmental goods & services (LCEGS). With a 6% share of the ?3,046-billion global market, the country is tied with Japan at the third position.
The US leads with a marketshare of 20.6% worth ?629 billion. It?s followed by China with a marketshare of 13.5% worth ?411 billion, according to a new British government report.
Asia has been identified as the emerging epicentre of the sector, more popularly referred to as a low-carbon economy. The emerging economies in Asia represent 38% of the global total, followed by the Americas, with 30% and Europe with 27%. India and China are identified as the hotbeds of the emerging low-carbon economy that currently don?t have the same level of technology and sector development as the US or Japan, but have relatively large market bases due to their fast developing economies and large population bases by the report titled Low Carbon and Environmental Goods and Services: An Industry Analysis by BERR (Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, UK) and Innovas, a research consultancy.
Till recently, the environmental goods & services sector used to refer to solutions for air, noise & marine pollution, land & water contamination, environmental analysis & consultancy, and waste management & recycling. Now it also includes renewable energy technologies like hydro, wave & tidal power, geothermal, wind & biomass, and emerging low-carbon activities like reduced emissions from the transport & construction sector, nuclear energy, energy management, carbon capture & storage and carbon finance. A low-carbon economy is one in which greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to levels that avoid escalating climate change.
Drawing from over 720 sources, the study includes only those companies that supply 20% of their turnover into the LCEGS sector. Using bottom up data based on what companies do rather than are classified to do, the study zeroes in on 2,490 environmental, renewable energy and emerging low-carbon activities within 23 sub-sectors.
The report breaks down the LCEGS sector into three parts: traditional environmental services, such as recycling, and water and waste management; renewables, such as wind, hydropower and biomass; and emerging low carbon, including nuclear power, carbon finance and building technologies. Of the LCEGS market of ?3,046 billion in 2007-08, the low-carbon businesses accounts for nearly half of the market or ?1,449 billion. Renewable energy accounts for 31% or ?940 billion, and traditional environmental activities make up the final 21% or ?657 billion.
Some of the largest products and services by market value include alternative fuels, 18.5% (emerging low-carbon sector); building technologies, 12.8% (emerging low-carbon sector); wind power, 11.5% (renewable energy sector); and alternative fuels for vehicles, 11.2% (emerging low-carbon sector), states the report.
The report suggests that the market growth in renewable energy and in fuels within the growing low-carbon sector is likely to sustain and grow through the current economic slowdown with the ability to yield higher long-term growth rates than the traditional environmental sector. The report has pegged the sector?s global growth at 4% in 2007-08 despite the global economic slowdown. It also forecasts a 45% growth in the environmental economy in the next eight years with much of it driven by renewable energy activities in the low carbon sector. The employment in this sector is also projected to grow by 4,00,000 jobs over the same period.
Aiming to lay down a roadmap for step change in key areas like increasing energy-efficiency and putting in place energy infrastructure for a low-carbon future, the report has a mine of information, particularly for the British. Speaking at the launch of the report, UK?s business secretary Peter Mandelson said, ?Low carbon is not a sector of our economy, it is, or will be, our whole economy, and a global market.? He could be talking for the whole of the global community.
