Hello West! Finance Is The Fuel For Fossil-Fuel Challenge

With nearly a sixth of the global population, and especially younger demographics at that, India has the responsibility of driving constant social and economic growth. It cannot afford to be slack in its internal efforts at growth, especially when it does not have a sixth of the world's wealth

- By Srinath Sridharan

THE RICHER NATIONS have developed and even oversaturated any more potential development. A look at human history shows that economic development typically brings physical comfort to humans. Be it simply the gadgets in the kitchen or farms, vehicles for transportation of people, cattle and cargo, refrigerators, air conditioning, cold chains, roads, airports etc., and offices and homes. Or be it larger science and technology that aid in development across various spheres that help societies. For decades, the developed nations have been using these what we colloquially think of as creature comforts.

They now need what’s replacement-stock or upgraded versions of these infrastructural comforts. But with a difference. They just need to support the clean energy base. Whereas, the other developing and poor nations don’t have this infrastructure either in total or for many, even in part. Their aspiration to support economic development is also to improve the quality of living for their citizens as well as the ability to provide this socio-civic infrastructure. This delta of growth aspiration from the current low base cannot be met by currently available zero-carbon ideas.

They would need conventional emissions based on growth in the short term, before aspiring for meeting the growth challenges by replacing fossil fuels with those with zero carbon emissions. Unfortunately, the push toward zero carbon emissions has been interpreted as a full ban on fossil fuel energy. This is economically unviable, and unfair to expect of developing and poor nations. Given all the global studies, research data, governmental negotiations itis an accepted premise that nations need finance and the latest commercially deployable technology towards climate transition and climate mitigation, and that it is important to understand the challenges of developing nations.