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GREEN TECHNOLOGY- AN OPPORTUNITY IN

DISGUISE FOR EMERGING NATIONS
Copenhagen was one of the biggest buzzwords of the last year being the venue for the
COP15 summit by UNFCCC. It brought together leaders and policy makers from around the
globe for a new world order to discuss climate change. But unfortunately, no radical output
came out of it and is very aptly also called just the ‘emissions summit’, because the major
discussions just circled around reducing emissions and carbon trading. More attention could
have been given to shift towards a sustainable model by changing our socio-economic
structure which could lead to a better long term future. Grave concerns for any such future
summits prevail as chances of 190 countries coming to a feasible conclusion leaving aside
their personal interests for a bigger cause does not seem to happen any time soon.

“Climate change is not an environmental issue, but much

More to do with security and economics”-Jonathan Poritt (2007)

The political and economic players of the world have changed astonishingly in the
last decade. The world now witnesses multiple superpowers emerging. Today the U.S faces
stiff competition from emerging countries like China, India and Brazil too. Although
emerging nations are the one of the highest carbon emitters in the world; China being number
one followed by India at the fourth position, per capita emissions of U.S remain six times that
of China and twenty times that of India. This gives us a serious insight on the vast differences
in the lifestyle and resource management between the developing and developed nations.

Green Technology
Sustainable development means to use resources in such a way that the needs can be
met not only in the present, but also for future generations. To achieve such a development, it
becomes quintessential for all countries to shift their focus on green technology and clean
energy to attain a stable future. Mitigation efforts can involve increased energy efficiency,
carbon capture and sequestration, development of non-fossil technologies, green buildings,
hybrid cars and other promising energy sources like bio-fuels. Discussing the role of
developing countries in making a sustainable world is important, as having a small and
growing economy and policy structure does help in easily implementing radical green
changes which unlike developed countries.

Adoption of clean and green energy at every level of production and consumption in
an economy seems simple, but involves a multitude of others factors which need to be looked
into before policy making. About 61% of world’s green house gas emissions are directly or
indirectly related to energy sector5. Oil being most conventional source of energy drives all
the economies. As the suppliers of oil are getting concentrated in the most unstable regions of
the world like Middle-east, it risks the efforts of all the countries to ensure an undisturbed
supply of fuel. Energy being the direct engine of an economy and the new currency of

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political power after the economic downturn increases the risks of geopolitical tension4.
Implementing green technology thus has a direct impact on climate, energy sector and
economy. So it becomes crucial for governments to maintain a balance between these factors
while implementing green technologies.

Issues
The incentives offered by green technologies are less pollution, reduction in solid waste,
energy efficiency and lesser electricity bills, but the consumers of these technologies are
industries and enterprises who look at immediate profits and thus don’t understand these
incentives. While, issues pertaining to these technologies are:

• A high initial investment in setting up the infrastructure.

• Trade competitiveness for green products against cheap non-green products.
So in most cases, the beneficiary and consumer which come out from usage of green
technologies are different

SOLUTIONS
The problem with these ‘Environmentally Sound Technologies’(EST) remain at the
implementation level, where a sustainable mechanism for financial support and subsidies
need to be devised for encouraging their use till the grassroots level. Looking at the solutions,
three major perspectives to approach a global problem like climate change are at local,
national and international level.

“I get all the news I need from the weather report”- Paul Simon

Local level:
India and China are countries with vast inter-state inequities. There is also a stark difference
between the driving forces of the market in the two cases. The urban economy is driven by
industries, while the rural markets are dominated majorly by agriculture. These disparities
point out that comprehensive policy for a state as a whole cannot work. We need different
framework, a model of sustainable development for rural regions.

Barefoot college, Tilonia, is a NGO started in 1972 in Rajasthan, India exemplifies

the perfect model for a sustainable model for development at local level. It was inspired by
principles of Gandhi and around the concept of villages as a self-reliant unit. It works for
helping villagers become self dependent by providing them with practical skill sets necessary
to self-employ themselves. These trained villagers call themselves ‘Barefoot engineers’.
Today, Tilonia is a totally self-sustainable village producing a huge chunk of its power
through renewable sources. These ‘Barefoot’ technicians have also installed solar powered
electricity in several thousands of houses in 8 Indian states. They basically work at the
community level changing mindsets and lifestyle of local people.

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 It is evident from the energy crisis around the world, that our current energy
infrastructure is unstable. So for implementing a shift to renewable sources, rural areas can
serve as a good starting point. Around 70% of Indian population is into agriculture directly or
indirectly, and majority of it comprises of rural population. By targeting rural population, we
meet an indispensible goal for clean energy along with a community uplift of huge population
through sustainable growth. Therefore, at village level, we need a community based
organisations like Barefoot college to replicate its model of sustainable growth and energy
self dependence through clean and green technologies.

National level:
The population of the emerging countries comprise 2/3rd of the world population, so it
is evident that by alleviating public awareness in emerging nations, we target a huge part of
the world and if that is achieved, will be half success towards tackling this global challenge.
As consumers today are getting wiser, it is forcing even huge Indian conglomerates like
Wipro and Tata to branch out a green wing of their own to meet customer demands. These
are clear indications of an emerging awareness of using greener products among the
consumers. But this awareness is not fast enough for smaller firms to act quickly. An
government initiated RD&D approach (Research, Development and Demonstration) can be
adopted which can include technologies such as solar photovoltaic cell, solar thermal,
geothermal, nuclear energy, carbon capture and sequestration, land management and
transportation, to show the importance of green technology to the masses1. This approach can
be enhanced by involving private participation of firms involved in such research (Wipro,
Tata, etc), as these collective efforts can help to be a stimulus for an industrial revamping for
a green future.

Secondly, the smaller green firms can be recognised and provided with capital for
growing their business through stocks. The government can encourage public investments
into such firms by setting up government owned low risk mutual fund houses which
specifically target portfolios of these green firms. This will be of tremendous help as it will
provide them will liquid capital for R&D and business. This will prevent such institutions
from dying out due to lack of funds and will also encourage more green entrepreneurs.

International level:
Climate change is accelerating at a pace faster than ever today, and no part of the
world will be spared from its consequences. So, we see that climate change is undoubtedly a
true global problem. At International level, as the technology transfer mechanism from
developed to developing countries is not that effective due to strict WTO norms pertaining to
IPR, I would propose a model for increase in R&D among the developing nations for
emergence of new technologies. The model is based on the G77 nations coming together by
creation of an institution for doing all the scientific research in the field of green
technologies. Such an institution can be a common platform for all 130 emerging countries to
do research and develop new technologies and alternative energy sources at a cost that can be

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shared among all the member nations. The technology developed under this institution would
be an open source technology which can be used by all for mitigation of climate change.

The biggest advantage in creating such an institution is that we have a lot of raw
science talent. India and China itself combined produces half a million graduates under
science and engineering compared to 60,000 from U.S. So diverting our human resources in
this kind of model can not only strengthen us technologically, but will also create a lot of
jobs, considering unemployment being a big problem in emerging nations. Another
advantage of international research is that due to so many participating countries, it would
majorly solve the problem of overseas trade competitiveness due to absence of technological
inequities among countries in this case.

CONCLUSION
Solutions proposed for mitigating climate change are innumerable, but what we don’t
have today is time. As climate offset accelerates day by day, the expenses needed for
repairing our environment will keep increasing with time, so the best time to act is now. The
proposed measures mentioned above might not be the absolute solutions for climate stability
but are a good pathway to reach closer to our goals.

As ambitious as it might sound, a long term advantage of emerging nations adopting

green technologies and getting self-sufficient for energy will be a gradual up rise in our
global political status, as the authority of developed nations on us would reduce. It can help in
the overall confidence of citizens of the developing world, which will help the economies
boom. This kind of stimulus would be also enough to lay an impetus for a worldwide uprise
of awareness among global citizens to work towards a green direction, which will be guided
by the beaconing example of emerging nations.

REFERENCES
Books and Articles referred:

1. Jeffrey Sachs (2008), Common wealth: Economics for a crowded planet

2. Cleo Paskal (2009), Global Warring- How Environmental, Economic and Political
crisis will redraw the world map.
3. McKinsey & Co. (2009), Environmental and Energy Sustainability-An approach for
India.
4. CSIS, World Resources Institute, A Roadmap for a Secure, low-carbon energy
economy.
5. World Energy Outlook 2007, China and India- Insights.

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Websites referred:

http://www.barefootcollege.org/

http://www.wto.org