INDIA - NORDIC GREEN ENERGY TRANSITION – ENVIRONMENT
News:
A Nordic-India connect to
power a green transition
What's
in the news?
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Over the last decades, Nordic countries
have been pioneering green technologies.
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Together, the Nordics and India can power
the green transition the world needs.
Importance
of Nordic Countries:
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Over the last decades, Nordic countries
have been at the forefront of developing new
green technologies and solutions such as hydrogen, offshore wind, and carbon
capture and storage.
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The Nordics have succeeded in building
stable, secure, welfare based societies
to a large extent.
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The Nordic region has ambitions to become
the most sustainable and integrated
region in the world by 2030.
Paths
of India and Nordic Countries Relations:
1.
Nordic India Summit:
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The Nordic India Summit was held in Copenhagen in May 2022.
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The five Nordic leaders and Indian Prime
Minister agreed to intensify cooperation on digitalisation, renewable energy,
maritime industries, and the circular economy.
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The Nordic business community in India is
also growing. There are now 240 Norwegian and Finnish companies in India.
2.
India and Finland:
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The past years has seen a significant rise
in trade and investments between
Finland and India.
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India has grown to become a priority
country for Finland. Finland has recently opened a new Consulate General in Mumbai.
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Several Indian companies are looking
towards Finland for its expertise in areas of technology and innovation, sustainability, digitalisation, carbon
neutrality and more.
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An increasing number of Indian students,
researchers, and experts have been moving to Finland as well. Finnish companies
such as Nokia and Fortum have some
of their most significant investments in India.
3.
India and Norway:
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Trade between Norway and India has doubled
in the last three years.
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The Norwegian
Sovereign Wealth Fund is likely to become one of India’s largest single
foreign investors with around $17.6 Billion investment.
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The Norwegian government has also recently
established a new Climate Investment
Fund for investments in renewables abroad, and India has been defined as a
focus country.
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Almost ₹1,500 crore have been invested so
far in India through the climate investment fund.
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As members of the UN Security Council,
India and Norway have been engaging with each other in the UN on global issues
of mutual interest.
4.
India and Sweden:
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India and Sweden formed a joint global
initiative to set up a Leadership Group
on Industry Transition (LeadIT) in September 2019 at the UN Climate Action
Summit to help guide the world’s heaviest greenhouse gas emitting industries
towards the low-carbon economy whose membership has now grown to 35, with 16
countries and 19 companies.
5.
India and Iceland:
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With Iceland, strengthening of economic
cooperation especially in the sectors of geothermal energy, Blue Economy,
Arctic, renewable energy, fisheries, food processing, education including
digital universities, and culture.
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They discussed opportunities to expand
cooperation in the fields of new and emerging technologies like AI, quantum
computing, future mobile technologies, clean technologies and smart grids with
Finland.
Projects
under India-Nordic Relations:
1.
Sagarmala project:
●
India invited Nordic companies to invest
in the Blue Economy sector, especially in India’s Sagarmala project.
2.
Sovereign wealth funds of the Nordic countries were invited
to invest in India.
3.
Lead IT initiative:
●
An India-Sweden move to set up a
Leadership Group on Industry Transition to guide the world’s heaviest
greenhouse gas emitting industries.
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Its membership has now grown to 16
countries and 19 companies.
4.
Health sector:
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Both sides discussed cooperation relating
to joint research in vaccines and the development of health infrastructure.
5.
Water bodies:
●
The two leaders also talked about the
cooperation in building and restoring water bodies in India.
6.
Green Energy:
●
The PM of India expressed an interest in
joint Nordic solutions that can support India’s green transition.
Significance
of the relations:
●
India’s
Arctic Policy provides a good framework for expansion
of India-Nordic cooperation in the Arctic region.
●
United
Nation Security Council: The Nordic countries reiterated
their support for India’s permanent membership of a reformed and expanded
United Nation Security Council.
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India agreed to work together to fight and
address climate change and to
protect the natural environment.
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They reiterated their commitment to
ambitious cooperation on renewable
energy, energy diversification, smart grids and energy efficiency.
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The blue
economy can deliver economic growth, new jobs, improved nutrition and
increased food security.
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A strong partnership between India and
Nordic countries can help promote innovation, economic growth, climate friendly
solutions and mutually beneficial trade and investments.
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India's
trade with Nordic countries stands at over USD 5 billion
(2020-21) and a cumulative FDI of over USD 3 billion.
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Both sides are looking forward to reform the UN, including the Security
Council, and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), as well as strengthening
collaboration on global health issues such as pandemic preparedness.
WAY
FORWARD:
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There is a great deal of complementarities
in trade relations as exchange in goods is of a different nature and trade in
services is an area of significant potential, especially with tourism,
education, IT, energy, maritime and financial services.
●
Technologies
and innovations that are successful and are scaled-up in
India can easily be transferred to other parts of the world, thus together, the
Nordics and India can be the powerhouse of the green transition globally.
Go
back to basics:
Nordic
countries:
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The Nordic countries are a geographical
and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic.
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It includes the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden; the
autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland; and the autonomous
region of Åland.
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The Nordic countries have much in common
in their way of life, history, religion and social structure.
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The Nordic countries cluster near the top
in numerous metrics of national performance, including education, economic
competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life and human development.