India should be among 1st nations to industrialise without carbonizing the world: Amitabh Kant

New Delhi: There is a need for climate finance and resources to flow into emerging countries and India should be among the first countries to industrialise without decarbonising the world, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said on Wednesday.

While delivering Bharti Lecture on India’s G20 Presidency around digital cooperation at IIT Delhi, Kant said that the world may survive in 2050 but human beings will go extinct if the world fails to meet the 1.5 degrees centigrade global warming target.

He said that western powers polluted the world when they were industrialising and the emerging markets have contributed very little to this present climate crisis.

Kant said that India has only contributed 1.5 per cent of the 2800 Gigaton of carbon space available, whereas logically on the basis of per capita income it should be entitled to 17.5 per cent..

“Irrespective of that, as we move forward, because we will become the third most polluting country in the world in due course. As we industrialize, India must become one of the first countries in the world to industrialize without carbonizing the world and therefore you need a decarbonisation strategy. You need long term financing to flow,” Kant said.

He said that India’s G20 Presidency has come in the midst of inflationary pressures across the world and other challenges that the world has been facing.

The former Niti Aayog CEO said that while emerging markets are growing, the resources from emerging markets are flowing to the developed part of the world, whereas growth is all happening in the emerging markets or the world. Kant said that the Prime Minister has said that India will treat this G20 as an opportunity to make the G20 very action-oriented, make it decisive, inclusive and forward looking.

“We have looked at our priorities and our priorities which India has put forward are really how to accelerate the pace of inclusive, resilient and sustainable growth for the world for the global economy,” Kant said.

He said that the world, instead of progressing, has actually regressed and there is a need to look at ways to accelerate the pace of sustainable development goals.

“If you look at all these SDG (Sustainable Development Goals ) and climate action, you will realize that the emerging markets require long term financing for both climate action and for sustainable development goals. This would require us to have resources flowing from the developed world to emerging markets as was committed by the Developed world in 2009 at Copenhagen,” Kant said.

He said that the emerging markets have not contributed to the crisis of climate action but the western power when they were industrializing.

“The developed countries have not lived up to their commitment, but more important than that there is no shortage of resources. There are vast resources available with the private sector, institutional lenders, pension funds, etc.

"We are not able to source that funding, because multilateral institutions like the World Bank, and IMF, were designed for a post world war two period. They were not designed for climate action,” Kant said.

While highlighting the global lead that India has in digital payments, data economy, he said that during the ongoing challenges, digital transformation is very important for the globe and India has continuously focussed on it as well as innovating.

“We can carry this Indian model to the rest of the world and transform the India model for the rest of the world simply because the big tech model of the United States will now come to an end as people get more conscious of their digital data,” Kant said.

He said that Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation has adversely impacted innovation in Europe and India will not be able to follow the European path.

“It will be very difficult for us to follow the European model because that has killed innovation. India has demonstrated that through the public track and through private sector innovation in the marketplace, this is really the future. And this to my mind is really the key to the growth of the world and to transforming the world,” Kant said.