Expert Webinar: Denmark-India: A Green Strategic Partnership

[Music] good morning and good afternoon ladies and gentlemen welcome on board it is an honor and pleasure to deliver the welcome address my name is country badra and it is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to this export webinar title denmark india a green strategic partnership i'm very happy and honored to welcome all the distinguished speakers his excellency mr freddiespan ambassador shashank will be joining us in next 10 15 minutes mr yarn and dr sheetan sharma you all are here because you understand and believe that the future is green and its hair we need all actors working together to pursue a sustainable path that links economic growth and environmental stewardship sustainable journey that we all need to take is in everybody's interest even if it may sometimes demand short term sacrifice the diplomatist is extremely proud to be marking its 25th anniversary a significant milestone that we have achieved we like to think that our 25 years of success can be attributed to a wholehearted commitment to our core values most importantly our commitment to our employees and our service commitment to you our readers viewers and partners as our progress is rewarding we are very excited to maintain this trajectory i truly believe that our passion will help us build on the solid business foundation that we have led with commitment respect and a sustainable approach our business development team myself included under the direction of our publisher have prepared a slate of presentations panel discussions and various other opportunities to interact with partners and peers for updates on the latest developments in the global arena as always we continue to be focused on the primary mission to offer opportunities for business networking and industry influence last year india and denmark decided to take the partnership to a new level that is a strategic partnership it is no secret that denmark is known for having a lot of expertise in sustainable development renewable energy and circular economy it is also evident that green energy has grain has gained traction recently developing and deploying alternative forms of energy has become a vital concern over the past several years some forms of green energy have been around for years even because that's where diplomatist comes in providing a dynamic platform for knowledge sharing and professional networking we will continue to hold such online and on-site events in the remaining part of the year as we continue to celebrate our 25th anniversary with that i will be introducing the chair for today's discussion professor dr sheetal sharma center for european studies school of international studies university i happened to meet professor sharma recently at one of the networking events her remarks immediately caught my attention and i'm very glad that she accepted and agreed to chair this very important discussion thank you professor sharma pleasure to have you with us you may kindly start the proceedings now thank you thank you kanchi so much uh for this invitation first of all good morning and good afternoon to everyone uh especially the panelist his excellency freddy sir and uh yal you are located in copenhagen i i can understand and i am so happy to be part of this panel discussion uh and that was a cheer i don't know how much authority i have as a chair but then my role is as good as a panelist because i have been given 10 minutes to speak and cheer the session but kanchi told me you know that ma'am you have to be very strict with time so that's one part of the story but the other part of the story is that i am going to talk about the title of the panel discussion which is india denmark green strategic partnership now i belong to academic world and tend to look at the world from a theoretical lens from a perspective which helps us to understand and locate the ideas events phenomenas whatever you may say in in in a in a practical context so we tend to bring together theory and practice that how far when we talk of something it can be brought into practice and from practice what do we learn as a feedback and that can be put into theory and then a kind of circle which feeds into one another now if i talk about that i know we have a very good uh panel going to talk about denmark and india relationship and strategic partnership but from indian perspective i'm going to flag certain concerns uh which we have about energy security and green partnership now as a developing country there are certain questions that we have in our mind about uh about our development about our energy need about our energy security energy independence and diversification before i move on to this particular set of questions that i raised just now i would like to draw your attention towards the first stage of industrialization or i would say particularly after india's independence there was a kind of linear transition towards energy uh you know the kind of energy resources that we had and the use of energy resources particularly coal and oil and these are non-renewable and we had our own out of it as well as some of the negative or disadvantages of using the renewable energy sources and greater dependence upon it uh a board of energy sources and all these things now gradually after 1990s with era of liberalization there was a small transition although of course in theoretical sense we call it as a disruption but there was an attempt towards understanding the other sources as well and at the same point of time imagine the world is also transferring transiting towards the renewable energy sources after the oil crisis finding new ways of energy dependence and other things and then the third stage becomes the third stage comes as a paradigm shift in the energy energy sector where in the paradigm shift we see a complete transition or a commitment to complete transition to renewable energy sources and within this this transition this 75 years journey of post-independence india we have seen from linearity to disruption to a paradigm shift and now india is uh is a is an emerging power i would say ambassador saab has already joined us he would say she till it's not an emerging it is already immersed to large extent and we have we are we are forced to reckon with that we india cannot go unnoticed and and a lot depends a lot hinges upon india's economic progress in next 20 50 years even in the economic sense or you may say in the global politics or on the global chess board now what now we are confronted with three important questions number one is energy security that is how we are going to manage the energy sources and be secure in the future from being an importer how do we see ourselves to be at least energy self-sufficient if not an exporter in the near decade or so number two we have to focus upon energy access and by access i mean uh providing energy or power to the areas remotest in area at the same time at the affordable prices so from energy security we have to see or ensure energy equity with peop for people uh living in remote areas with less resources at their disposal and at least energy which is affordable and the third one which which uh very well blends into these two first questions and also with the development agenda that india has in front of um you know in for next two three decades is energy sustainability and energy sustainability i know uh yala is going to talk about cons he is representing consider here and he is going to talk about that climate change now how india is going to manage these three important questions number one addressing its development agenda not put a break on the process of industrialization for which we need continuous supply of fuels energy and power at the same time managing and addressing the energy or divide that is existing in india to certain extent it has been taken care of in the last one decade you have latest statistics with you and the third one is about the sustainability that at the same point of time these are two opposing uh you know forces one development at the cost of climate another one sustainable development and protecting the climate as well so how do we address these two issues sometimes seem to be contradicting one another now uh in this particular context i propose a three or four d model which i would say emerges out of development the issue of development must address the diversification of resources d1 diversification that is of energy basket and over a period of time we have to be very progressive in the sense of relying more on the renewable and replacing the non-renewable and over dependence upon the conventional sources of power that india has been using so far number two decentralization that is of generation of power at the same time consumption of power from the hands of not just the public or private but a perfect combination of ppp model the third d is decarbonization which deals with the question of sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint that is to use low carbon energy fuels and all these things so diversification decentralization decarbonization and finally distribution that is how do we understand that everyone in the process of globalization development and industrialization at least in india i'm saying india right now i'm keeping india in focus that gets to have a fair share of energy or at least power or resources which are at the center of this entire agenda of development now finally coming on to the last part i think i'm just given 10 minutes and i would try to conclude and raise certain questions and request panelists also to keep those questions in mind while addressing the audience that why this kind of transition is coming about there is a greater emergence of environmental ethic over the last two three decades although of course it started in the west quite a bit or two or three decade earlier as compared to india but at least i can say there is a tendency of emergent environmentalism in in general among masses and that's a global concern now but among all other concerns sometimes this this gets subsumed under the broader issues of security of other greater issues which confront the developing countries like india particularly but primarily what are the drivers that are bringing about change one is the policy and the regulations that are changing number two over dependence upon the conventional energy resources is also putting a heavy pressure on the bills number three the private sector since liberalization has started taking initiatives into the process of developing certain powerhouses and also looking for alternate resources of energy and fourth is the emergent environmentalism that i just mentioned is about the awareness that is coming from the grassroots level and the bottom-up approach which is putting or exerting pressure upon the policy makers and governments of respective countries and states to look for alternate energy sources although drivers are there but the task is not as simple as i know it seems to be at least in the case of my society or india because of certain problems of infrastructure problems of lack of investment problems of lack of understanding and awareness about the uh resources and at the same time sometimes during the push of you know developmental questions the environment climate and other kind of um you know things which are very pertinent sustainable goals they tend to get a small beating i'm not saying a complete but at least to a certain extent or are pushed aside in the process of aggressive development and meeting the goals that are there for development of our society so within this broad context i would say that there is a lot of scope for india and denmark to come together and both excellency and uh y'all are going to talk about how we are going to uh actually bring materialize this strategic partnership not just in terms of its spirit but not just in terms of letter but in spirit and as our prime minister has already said that denmark has skill and we have got scale so how can we actually strike a balance and a synergy between these two entities and try to look forward to a future which is green and denmark is exemplary in the sense of introducing uh renewables and then uh although of course it's a it's a yet an important energy importer country but almost 70 percent plus energy dependence is upon renewable out of which 60 is when so i'm very happy that such kind of synergies such kind of partnerships or collaborations can come up in future and they can also guide and also contribute effectively substantially to our agendas of development which are related to make in india even if you are developing something there is a there is a transfer of technology or there is exchange of expertise or ideas at least we are contributing and uh doing substantial gains in the areas which are the flagship programs of our government or dispensation uh such as smart cities or clean water green energy climate change and many such programs which are there in the future for us to unfold and meet the development agenda thank you so much and uh as as as chair of this session my task is to invite the next speaker and am happy to invite now um his excellency mr freddie swanette ambassador of denmark to india to deliver his address welcome sir over to you thank you very much indeed and i'm truly honored by your invitation to address the audience about our green strategic partnership and uh happy to see many familiar faces ambassador shashank jalal krausing and kanji of course and with you mrs sharma let me put you in the context of why we have the green strategic partnership and what is the kind of perspective of this uh green strategic partnership because you i think you have to understand this is unique nobody else in the world have had this kind of strategic partnership denmark does not have it uh india does not have it so when we were looking into how to combine all the challenges that you so uh ferociously if i may say so uh dr sharma alluded to then we were looking into how can we help india the scale of india how can we bring our skills uh into to india and our point of departure was that we wanted to really to connect with the missions of the indian government the mission leading to a new india where each and every person has a right to health or to education and a better life and how that will of course leave behind a huge impact on the climate on the planet so therefore we said okay let's see if we can be part of that transformation but securing that india is moving in a sustainable way and i don't accept uh dr sharma the idea that uh economic uh economy and development are two opposite size uh sizes it's wrong and it's not what i'm feeling i think you were alluding to a theoretical point of view what we have said to the indian government and they have accepted that is that of course india has the right to develop but you don't have the right to put it very bluntly the right to do and commit exactly the same mistakes that we did in our part of the world that's why we bring in our skills we would like india really to do to grow its economy but in a green and sustainable way that's the point and this green strategic partnership and the action plan that has been made public uh uh some some week or months ago or so it's setting out very clear and well-defined kpis as to what should be achieved within a number of different tracks the more important tracks are energy and of course water and then climate and finance these are the most important track scene from our point of view but the green transition as such is much more encompassing than those four tracks but they are the main tracks if we look into uh energy denmark as you rightly said there are a lot of discussions and a lot of numbers floating around and so forth but there's no doubt that the green transition in denmark has been a success it has been rewarding it has created a far richer more wealthier society and it has helped us really to survive and move away from a more black fossil fuel driven past to a greener future we haven't yet really accomplished the total trajectory but we are in a good good way and i think we stand out we stand out as an example of how you successfully can undertake a green transformation india i mean if you take all the most important parameters how much electricity will an indian on average consume a year it's one third of the global average per capita the emission of co2 is same so one-third is seeming to be seems to be really the the the big number on your side so how do we help you we would like to bring in our all our skills as well as green hydrogen power 2x energy islands resilient robust grids which is perhaps the most important part of the green trajectory in the future it's not about how you generate renewables but it's how you are really uh distributing all these things and that is going to be the big biggest leap that hopefully india will take in the future so so for energy we support it and i'm really personally extremely happy that john kerry accepted the idea that the biden administration's uh announce reduction of their co2 emissions equals or is equaling the 450 gigawatt of renewables in india that's a sectoral approach of course india in the future will have to look into the industrial sector and the big issue is here that a lot of countries including denmark are asking for a facing out of co it's not just facing out a an energy source in india it has a societal impact and therefore you also have to do calculations on that our prime minister has been very clear and when she gave a speech at the rising dialogue in april she really mentioned that we will need to have a just and a fair uh development for countries like india so it can be done and i don't see any any uh kind of opposition to develop an economy uh it's not either to grow or to stay green or become green it has to be a joint road a joint trajectory and it's possible i'm pretty sure that india at some point of time will overtake rest of the world you have 1.3 billion people you have and i think it can be verified and i'm pretty sure that india already has uh really delivered on the paris agreements and so forth what is at stake is of course how to grow and how to secure that each and every aspiring india indian will have access to the same kind of lifestyle that we have developed in our world it's not about driving huge cars it's about having a fridge or and so forth that's important how to get pumps into india that are consuming less electricity and you know we can do all that so india is on really on the track they need india needs finance they need uh technology early on the western powers like eures and others were sending a second hand even danish companies were sending second-hand the machinery and production lines to india and uh they were phased out in europe and elsewhere and that was sent to india i've seen it with my own eyes that's not the way forward we had to bring the skills scale and skills to india so we bring in the best technology because if india is failing the rest of the planet will be failing as well you mentioned scale of india opportunities and challenges skills meaning solutions of denmark very very important we have added about two other assets speed because urgency is there we need to really to tackle the climate changes we need to bring india on board we need also to to deliver on the sustainable development goals and the sustainable development goals the stds in fact a kind of a gender at least to some part of really um being able to deliver on on a an effective battle against the climate changes so that's one the other part the the fourth s is scope so what we do in india bilaterally or jointly in a multilateral setting could be cop 26 is of importance the scope of that is so important so it goes beyond that so the four s's are very very important and the four d's that you mentioned i can subscribe to all of them and when i look into how things are developing out here and the pressure from outside i think we have to realize that india will do what is needed internationally and globally but they will do it in their own way so they will not accept pressure seen from my point of view from say the western powers that we should be phased out where we should help is helping the indian railways to use electricity to become a green mover help indian companies because the big indian companies will be those who are going to absorb the newest technology they will absorb all the millions or billions of euros dollars that will be floating in and don't forget that back in 2009 15 in denmark there was a commitment and we have never delivered on the 100 billion us dollars we we did not even pay the bill for it so we are lacking behind and therefore i don't think that's a personal view i don't think we can come and tell a country like india you have to do exactly the same as we are doing we have to tell india if you want like to help all of us and survive uh as well then use the best technologies use the platform like the green strategic partnership and that's the way forward and i do hope that this green strategic partnership which is now a template here in delhi everybody's talking about even the americans are looking into it so this is not just nice political statements it's really something that we will be delivering upon our minister for climate energy and utilities are coming to india uh in early september where we are really combining these kind of ambitions to secure that the big players the big danish businesses uh who are in many fields a world leader with their specifics that they will help india bringing their skills to india secondly we will also secure that we will look into the scale will help india inspire india to do the needed energy transition and i think the key for the time being of india's transition green transition lies in the energy sector and there's no other country in the world where then denmark who has the experience has seen the benefits of it and we don't see development as an kind of in opposition to to to being green and sustainable denmark is an example of how you can combine that and i'm pretty sure that y'all and all of us would say denmark grew our economy quite considerably and still we maintained the energy construction as well as the co2 footprint can be done should be done and don't really fall into the academia trap of saying that we cannot develop in parallel with being sustainable and we you can you should and you are really really uh forced to do it if you continue that kind of thinking you will not reach where you are supposed to reach and if india is failing is not reaching this cisco the whole world will not survive so so don't have this kind of old-fashioned idea sorry to be very blunt about it but i've heard it so many times not only from people here as well as from from from the western world that's a different setting and we will have no future if we continue this kind of split or their thinking and reflection ladies and gentlemen was a great place addressing you're sorry i don't know how many minutes i went over but it's very important i feel so passionate about it and we have to really to move forward stay green think green and act green thank you very much indeed a pleasure thank you very much your excellency uh for encouraging us but as i said you know there is a difference between the scale and the scope and and when we talk about scale absolutely some of the and and it's just not um academic fallacy or or anything like that it's it's the practical experience that we have had here in in our country and uh just just a small uh experience india and not stay with the past india we will thank you for thank you for infusing so much of optimism but we are we are really really big 1.4 billion people and that's that's two largest size but yes we are ready to take up all the challenges despite all the hurdles or whatever challenges we are going to have we are going to succeed certainly now i invite the next speaker uh ambassador shashank who is former indian ambassador to denmark and foreign secretary of india former foreign secretary of india welcome to the panel discussion sir you joined us late however we had just started when you joined us uh and my name is to you please thank you very much dr sheetal ambassador swan mr i'm very happy to join at this meeting uh one example was given to me for development sustainable development by my friend from denmark who was a member of europe and parliament he said when you start having migration not from the rural to urban areas but from urban to rural areas then you can say that you have started developing really my former president abdul kalam used to say that if your knowledge you have gained enough knowledge then you are developed it's a question of personal knowledge if you are not knowledgeable if you are not studied well then you remain underdeveloped so i am living in a small village which is quite far away from delhi about 300 kilometers in the lab of himalayas and very cold about 18 19 degrees centigrade so therefore uh i would say that i'm following the example set by my uh mep friend uh in denmark i was there about 18 years ago and or 20 years ago and so i saw that denmark had been an example not for only developing countries but for even the most developed countries my friend the ambassador of japan always told me that if one country from where we can learn in japan is denmark we say look we will be quite happy to learn from japan i mean you would keep learning from denmark and we'll learn from you that should be okay for us but now that we find that we have a passionate ambassador in ambassador here in india i have no doubt that we are likely to have a direct uh implementation of this green strategic partnership between india and denmark and i would be quite happy to see that this is developing so sitting in my cottage in the himalayas i can see that yes things are moving well i will also like to say that in wind energy denmark is really great and they have developed so many new technologies on the wind energy side and the wind atlas i was told is so accurate almost 200 300 meters of the whole coastline was mapped by them and any country which wants to have a strategic partnership in denmark i think it will be worthwhile for them to request denmark to help us set up event atlas even for india on solar energy we have done reasonably well i think we are now number two or number three in the world though i remember 20 years ago when i requested the rizzo national laboratory in copenhagen i told them that they have developed some new technologies increasing the efficiency of their solar cells much more than what we others were able to get so they said look sorry you know we don't have enough sun so we are not working on that technology really and we have closed that chapter so they were not interested in doing it for themselves so they even close the department of the solar energy as far as i remember i do not know that they were able to restart it one very important reason which is now very common between denmark and india i would say denmark had malmo right next door across the ocean and they had a nuclear power plant in marmot and if the wind blew towards copenhagen then the danish people would be very unhappy we have these winds blowing from china on one side pakistan from one side and now recently from afghanistan we have to keep all those things in mind and see that at a time when india was being lectured by the countries in the west how to improve our democracy they were sending all their companies to china to transfer all the technology to china now fortunately things have changed because now they want partnership with india and this is one thing we would like to do because if we go only to america they also okay military strategic partnership we'll give you the drones will give you the space technology and other kind of things and in afghanistan they handed over everything to the talibans all the whatever equipment they had transferred there and it was a unidirectional military strategic partnership which really did not succeed therefore we would like to have a great friendship with the united states but we would like to have this strategic green or economic and other partnerships with countries like denmark countries like uh japan with australia and others and that is why we are thinking of alternative uh production chains so that in case many companies want to move out of china or if they want to have a very satisfactory base in a country from where we have a local market we have a sustainable development goal idea in our mind and at the same time we can then build up linkages with the neighboring countries and we have several of these partnerships which have been developed within the sarc or bin stick or in uh whatever quadrilaterals and trilaterals etc etc i would think that if we can leave it to our private sector they can find the best partnerships between denmark and india and they should be able to do that that should be number one as far as i can see energy yes waste treatment i think denmark again is very very good because i found that they were carrying out in the best areas 32 types of base separation and they suggested to us that look even if you started two or three waste separation procedures ultimately you will be able to clean up the area and chemical wastage can then be treated in a different way i mean you have of course you are lucky that you have a island uh unanimated island where you are using all the chemical waste is being disposed of so we have to find out some areas where we can also try to dispose of the chemical waste without hurting the population or without writing the uh our green goals china had taken great advantage of the carbon credits now carbon credits are over so we have to really think in terms of how we can do things without depending on all these various gifts from the un system or from the international system and we are quite willing to go according to the highest rigorous standards of accountability to our own people as well as to our international partners but the fact is that basically it is not because what you will tell us but what we have learned and especially our present type of government which has drawn a lot of lessons from its past from the hindu sanatana culture we are totally attached to our nature to our environment and to our uh cultural partnership cultural heritage i think therefore we cannot destroy it if we look at our temples which were set up 1 000 years ago 1500 years ago i mean they have been done so perfectly i think many of the modern architectural marvels also will not be able to carry out such accurate measurements as many of our temples etc have done so we have something to not only we have to carry forward that idea and principle it is only one thing i would say that china is the only country which are openly accepted that whatever they have learned they have learned only one common country and that's india it is a different matter they have been able to further develop many of the indian technologies via kalari patoo you know which is the kind of their martial art chinese may have developed it further but at the same time they feel that contemplation meditation and saturation came to them from our hinduism and buddhism and the martial arts which came to them from us they have been able to develop it further because they got the basic things and the issues like yoga meditation etc they were developed by them into many other uh like chi or other techniques and they have benefited greatly but many other countries have simply become quiet whatever they may have benefited from india they said no we don't have anything from india they we have to look after them because they cannot take care of themselves i think if you can now at least the best can realize that if they try to develop other countries whether in the form of afghanistan whether in the form of pakistan or many other countries i think it's much better to find those countries which have your domestic lobby domestic civilizational continuity and see that yes if we work with them we can really have the sustainable development goals strategic partnership for green development which will be good for all of us and i personally since i lived in denmark at a time when danish people are looking forward to set up uh the ports in india and they told me they said look at least never shipping norwegian and danish shipping they said we are in charge of the shipping area in the european community and we depend too much on the indian uh people as far as shipping is concerned and therefore they are very much interested in developing our ports etc so i hope that these are some of the other areas which we can think of and ambassador is there and i think now i don't want to take up more time of yours thank you very much for inviting me uh and getting me to this wonderful conference thank you process sheeta thank you thank you shashank sir uh for giving a comprehensive view not just of green strategic partnership but other areas also where we can work together and possibly design ways for uh greater development and now finally i invite mr yar crossing deputy ceo and international director of consito which in latin means i set in motion so consider excellent friends excellent translation thank you dr sharma and let me just start by first of all express my sincere appreciation of being invited to this uh distinguished panel and with the ambassador shashank and ambassador swan and with the country patras as well it's really a great pleasure to have this opportunity to touch upon a very critical issue i think at a critical point in history as well i am going to reflect i think on three different points and the first one very much uh inspired by what we have heard already which is about you know basically science matters numbers matter size matters uh very much and then moving into some reflections around the green recovery after the kobit 19 and then moving on to areas of strengthening you know our mutual collaboration etc so i would like to really start past also first by congratulating the diplomats for his 25th year anniversary and it's a it's a well done deed you obviously play an important role exactly on the issue of trying to nurture collaboration between countries because if there's anything that we depend on right now it's really about sharing experiences sharing technologies and approaches and building development pathways that benefits both parties and i think uh touching upon that issue of um developing uh it's very important to stress that climate change is unique in the extent that it makes us all developing countries so it's not an issue of you know the traffic going in one way and the one way to demonstrate this is simply to touch upon you know the degree to which both of our countries are vulnerable to what we're looking at in terms of the impact many people may not know even in in our own country that denmark actually carries the highest per capita cost from climate change related disasters since 1980 among the eu countries we are in many ways you know comparable with your neighbor bangladesh below lying the country by the ocean built on sediments we don't have any rocks apart from one island down in the baltic sea so we are extremely vulnerable to water coming in from all sides whether it's from the sea level rise which is now according to the latest ipcc report a model to possibly raise by five meters by the year 2300 so we're looking into as denmark into a future which is extremely threatened because of climate change so our urgency to act on climate change is not really just you know driven by interest in export or whatever you call it but also a very altruistic kind of a effort that we are calling upon here we just saw uh also in in india the extent to which you have been hit by cyclones and droughts floodings to a scale that you've never experienced before given the the composition so to speak of of the subcontinent you are also looking into the future which will dry up india unless we really get a much firmer hand on on what's happening on on the climate agenda we just saw the international panel on climate change coming out with a sixth assessment report which really points to how serious the situation is looking right now um there is no pathway into the future for the world if it's not at the carbonized pathway over the next few decades and that sense i totally agree with my compatriot ambassador if we do not find a solution on climate action and change that fits and suits and is adaptable to indian context there's no solution to what the world needs to do so what we really should focus on here is to make sure that countries that are you know challenged from in their development pathways that they're given the opportunities and the technologies and the experiences etc that are required for those countries to also build green growth based economies so i think it really calls on the rationale for this you know strategic partnership that it's mutual it goes both ways and i will also come back to another important issue which is we have actually something to learn from you [Music] but let's get back to that actually a little bit later i'd like to just comment a bit also on the kobit 19 pandemic and recovery and the opportunity that it has provided as a burning platform to reconsider our economic growth model as we move forward we all know when you're standing on a burning platform it's an opportunity out of just not wish but also to reassess what do we do from here that is different from what we did in the past something went wrong we need to do something better this is what the combat 19 should mean for us we're still struggling with addressing you know the crisis of you know saving lives etc it's not saying in any ways that this is not you know a priority it is a priority to save lives but as soon as we come over you know the rescue phase and looking into the recovery phase it's really an issue to make sure that we build a foundation for an economy that can address not only climate change but the sustainable development goals and making sure that it's actually happening in an inclusive and sustainable manner when you look at how a recovery finance has been spent in the world so far early data indicates that by far the most recovery finance is going into supporting a continual continuation of fossil fuel based economy it's less than 20 of the 2.5 trillion dollars that has been directed towards the recovery that is actually embodying a kind of a green action agenda so i think it's also an issue for india to really consider right now how best to use that enormous recovery package that has been uh already put on on the place in india um i must say from the danish context we also did put together a recovery package but that was honestly not green enough there are other concerns that comes in and you need to have investment grade plans and rate and so on that you can move on quite frankly we did advance as some infrastructure projects related to wind energy islands or you know building a renovation and some lighter touches upon advancing sustainable transport etc we definitely did not do enough and there's still a huge call for for country also like ours to actually do more actually 75 of the green recovery finance that actually came into the world uh here after kobe 19 has really emerged from only six countries so it's a general trend that we're not making full use of the potential to build the growth model of the growth economy that is green for the future because we have to realize and again i'm agreeing with with the pastor espana here there's not only no contradiction between you know poverty eradication or economic growth on one side and making sure that it's actually sustainable and based on green prerogatives on the other side that's one of the reasons why we within the danger context also the danish development council have adopted a new uh development strategy that is very much you know conditioning the economic growth and development on the basis of a green prerogative very much helped by the fact that you know the price and technologies whether it's wind or solar very much help on by the international solar alliance an institute that india has initiated you know the prices on these technologies are coming down to uh with a with a scale and a speed that we had not anticipated just a few years ago when looking into uh finding areas that i think where we could strengthen our collaboration evidently there are many issues on the energy agenda and i totally agree on all of these that also was that you were put on me on the table before i think there are definite areas there that needs to be addressed but there are two other on these two maybe three other areas but which i think is viable for strengthening our collaboration one thing is in the city's agenda your prime minister modi has initiated i think it was back in 2015 the 100th smart citizen interested and we have initiated in denmark a project which is called dk denmark dk 2020 which is a project in collaboration with c-40 the global network of cities working for sustainability that is built trying to develop development plans for at the municipal municipality level in compliance for the paris agreement so helping municipalities to actually do their contribution and building a local green economy evolving the citizens and the businesses and whoever relevant access at the local level so bringing together the experience that we have each of the two countries on how we build the the cities of the future that are not only green but also digitally smart is an area that i think would both benefit both parties another area which i think is really critical for all countries and especially maybe for uh countries like denmark and india is the uh effort or the need to make sure that we have the right skills in the workforce one talks about a mismatch in the workforce mismatch between what are the skills that the workforce has to do and what are the skills that they need to have if we are to build the new economy very basically we need to electrify everything has to be electrified but do we have the electricians that can actually make it happen do we have the green hands the green brains that can turn ideas and concepts into what happens in the villages of the businesses locally that's a big issue if we are to uh you know really materialize the potential or the need for us to build green economies over the last or over just over a few decades so experiencing there how we actually can share some some approaches on on addressing those skill sets in the labor force could be an area of mutual interest i think finally the last issue is uh and you were mentioning in ambassador shazam the issue of finance um we are in denmark we have been quite successful in drawing in a private sector finance from institutional investors or pension funds etc uh for in public private the partnership kind based approaches so the the approach in terms of be risking you know capital that goes into early marketing of technologies etc bringing bringing efforts to scale i think could be an issue where we could share experiences maybe connected directly to the international solar alliance initiative which is remarkable in its scale but which is also facing the same kind of challenges that many of these global initiatives are facing the lack of finance and it is weird because we're living at a point in time where there has been never so much finance available uh it's just not these risks enough we need capital to get out there and working uh in uh you know in or supporting you know the efforts of both companies and governments and building the green infrastructure of the future so i think in the area of finance and the risk in finance i think there could be a lot of opportunities and trying to work more specifically those this those issues so finally i'd like to close with what i said in terms of learning from from you which is we are very much often portrayed as a green uh leader uh in climate and that's nice it's fine it's okay the historical reasons for it uh oil became very expensive with importing it from the gulf country so we built these renewable energy technologies we've now decided to close down our own oil production which we did until recently it will be closed down so we're betting 100 on the green economy but our lifestyles our consumption patterns are very unsustainable so if you actually look at the footprint of a danish consumer individual footprint of a dangerous consumer we are the top 10 of the countries in the world that are leaving huge or exporting you could say footprints in terms of carbon water materials and land use so we also are placed at exactly the same point where many other countries are that we need to change the way we use resources and i think we need inspiration from countries on how you actually build a thriving cities or thriving livability that is not so materially intensified so can we develop these kind of models together with other countries including india it would be really great uh so i think if we are talking achilles heels for for our countries and going forward for us it's our consumption patterns and for india surely it's still the coal um that that of course we need to to decarbonize or everybody needs to to move away from over the coming decades so a lot of the areas i think we can strengthen our collaboration and looking very much forward to to discuss these issues thank you very much for this opportunity [Music] thank you young for uh you know very passionate and candid expression of the problems that you face and also not being very eurocentric or you know in terms of accepting that yes we are there we have achieved it but actually putting in front of the audience that what are the issues and urgencies that need to be addressed and before i uh sum up this i have already received a set of questions and we'll be receiving them in the chat box now and i'll take up questions and answers and would request the panelists to express their ideas or comments or answers to these questions the first question that i have received is from rasik ravindra who is member of clcs and the question states that are there any specific fields of cooperation between india and denmark identified for arctic region in view of the in view of the anthropogenic impacts on climate change as depicted in the ar6 report of ipcc how is denmark dealing with environmental problems of plastic and micro plastic abundance in the ocean i think yeah you will take up this question i'm not sure i actually do have the answers but i mean uh if it comes to the plastic let me just start with that uh we are very much bound by our uh bound by eu legislation on on on plastics and plastic waste and there we have new regulation out there that actually is banning spanning one single use plastic forms so there's an effort in trying to make sure that we actually move away and from using plastic to the to the scale and the level that that we are at the national stage we uh have a couple of years had a a a waste kind of management approach where you at the household level actually had to differentiate plastic waste from other sorts of waste as well so it's been collected separately i know that our big shipping companies are actually working on different concepts in terms of also trying to collect the waste from the oceans as they're already tracking that but i don't really have the details around that issue when it comes to the arctic um i'm not aware that it is directly involved in direct collaboration in the arctic uh scale but maybe maybe ambassadors would would know that but not to my extent i wouldn't be able to answer that i would request his excellency to take this question also up which i'm reading just now because uh uh this also happens to be the area where you will be the best person to comment upon and this question comes from copel chobe data manager research engagement south asia daikin university and the question is what kind of engagement do you view with india in renewable energy although it's asking for space also but i think we'll just focus on renewable energy so what kind of engagement do you view with india in renewable energy what gaps do you identify in technology that denmark can help film oh thank you very much for this question sorry we had a technical uh issue here so i was not part of the the many questions but anyhow as to this question i i think it's important to keep in in mind that denmark in fact was the first country helping india building up the wind industry and we did that uh years back or decades back where we helped india setting up a specialized uh agency dealing with onshore wind and that's important because that was really uh the prerequisite for uh building up the uh onshore wind industry in in india gaps are of course we are now looking into offshore wind we know it's extremely costly but we also know that based on our experiences and experiences from other parts of the world that wind offshore wind can be and should be uh seen from our point of view part of the energy mixer of india because you have at least two stretches in india you have gujarat and tamil nadu where you can build up offshore wind farms the big issue here is of course that those who are going to invest from our side in these kind of things or they are they they will of course their finance the setting up and the cables and substations and all that but then the price of the electricity generated from these offshore wind farms is far higher than the price you can get in the market so i mean i've been in in fierce discussion with uh the uh sovereign funds or pension funds of denmark who claim they're green and they are green of course but uh don't uh be mistaken about the fact they also want to make money so so they said okay we are putting up these things and then you should embrace it all and then of course there was a gap between the electricity price uh that they can produce at and then the price you could get in the in the market so leave that aside it's a small or a small part of it but what we are looking into now is how to build up this uh grit because the energy grid needs to be very resilient and robust and it's our experience and we have energynet which is a kind of state-owned energy agency that is in control our energy grid and so forth and they are extremely good and i think it's a gold mine for for the rest of the world we had a lot when i was in japan connecting the uh this energy net with the japanese side so um the grid will be the next big thing and you have issues with the distribution comps or companies out here therefore we are really really happy to to see that the indian government has launched some reforms that will reform the distribution companies are heavily indebted and on the other hand also uh create open access to the energy uh transmission transmission uh grid that's important and there we like to help india and by the way as i mentioned that our minister for climate and india is coming to india and uh he will uh uh with his colleague rk singh he will inaugurate what we call the uh uh center of excellence for offshore win so so we are helping india we have been part of the uh the early phases and we are now inspiring bringing our skills to india and then we'll see how far it can be taken i hope that was the answer thank you very much sir and i'll pose this question to uh ambassador shashank that and this question comes from sribam johan who is a research scholar at iit bombay and he says what we can learn from denmark in implementing and providing eco-friendly culture so one thing the danish business experts found that the indian quest for spirituality was so good and they introduced it in many of their mba courses and they set up partnerships with some of the indian iims on this specially iim bangalore where they said that look if a management expert is learning only how to make money he is not able to make money but if he can really go beyond that for public good for civilizational values he would be able to make money as well as contribute to the betterment of the society so i think that this is something where we have already been cooperating and i'm talking about my experience of 20 years ago i'm quite sure that many of these areas must have been explored further in the last decades so i think that is one thing on eco-friendly thing and then secondly as mr charles said that denmark is a very low-lying country i think the highest point in denmark might be 300 meters or so so if i am somewhere about 2000 meters right now so i feel that really i am too much higher compared to the highest peak in denmark but i think this is important so they are obliged to have eco-friendly technologies if they did not do it earlier now they will definitely do it so therefore these are partnerships which will be of great value to them as well as to us because what they have best practices we can give the scale which they cannot have so the scale they can find only in india and therefore it will be a good laboratory prototype that they can create and in fact i remember that even for coal as we have been talking about how to reduce the footprint that in denmark there also these clean coal technologies because there was a time when they used to depend on coal many of the european countries depend on goal but then they developed this clean coal technology and so we can share that with you but then at that time we were not interested we said no we would like to have the crude because we cannot increase the cost by cleaning up the code and in the meantime i find that most of the petco from united states is being imported into india so that is the dirtiest coal which you can import or you can manufacture anywhere and that we are importing the whole lot from america right now but anyway i think these are the things which we can learn from denmark because they are the closest friends of the americans in the world and if they know anything about america they are the ones who know so that is something which we can learn from them only being eco-friendly thank you very much sir and this question i'll uh post to y'all and the question is from bhavia the hell out and the question is what is your strategy to enter indian market which states in india will be considered by companies of denmark to enter india as a part of strategic green alliancial well i thank you for the question um if i'm just before answering that question reflecting on what ambassador shark just responded to the previous question i think one of the areas where i think we could also actually [Music] seek inspiration is where we need to look for it is the way we build the you know communities locally uh we have been very much focused on i know on a on a lifetime model uh where we have each other of our you know quotation palaces in a way and when you sit in the car we go to work go home we see our old parents maybe once every two weeks or three weeks and you know so finding forms the way we actually live closer together locally and to a higher extent depending on each other it's also another way of actually trying to seek lifestyles that makes us more happy uh all um is create livestream all liveable so to speak so i think i'm really serious about this seeking you know inspiration in terms of also the the well you could call the spiritual kind of lifestyles etc but less materialistic at least when it comes to business strategies in terms of entering markets in india i do represent a think tank so we don't really move into taking over markets as such but i would say one thing which is as a think tank we have a membership which is unusual and one third of our members of businesses and one-third are academia and one-third of the civil society organizations so we actually are very closely associated with the biggest greenest bench companies of many uh of them are exporting uh you know their technologies and insights etc solutions to indian [Music] states and it's always coming up when we start you know when we discuss how can we you know as as knowledgeable as institutional or companies not only actually sell our products and solutions but actually contribute to development pathways in the countries where they where they're working and one thing that i've noticed the reason is that there's a lot of emphasis selection on water and that they're working at the at the state level uh very much that seems to be the approach but my two i'm not representing a business as a think tank i would love to take over all indian think tanks and maybe we should put that in our business plans but it's it's not really approved [Music] thank you and next question i'll post to is excellency uh freddy sir and the question is from professor amparo pamela from national police college portal and the question is a very simple straight liner what are the best practices in the green partner i think we have lost connection with his excellency yal would you like to take a call on this question what are the best practices in this dream partnership i can definitely give it a try [Music] i mean basically my take would be that the best practice is to exactly move away from the talk uh to the action yes get get it on the ground see what actually works uh this old-fashioned way that i think was dominating you know thinking a few decades back back where you could just translate one to one a solution from a developed countries to a developing countries like like india those are gone uh if if we don't have solutions that can adapt to local context and address local concerns and be integrated into uh you know the the local cultural way of actually building solutions whether it's in business or government or working in communities or citizens etc it doesn't work so i think it's very important to really truly understand what are the contexts in which uh you know transfer transfer of knowledge and experience unfolding if you don't get that kind of baseline [Music] right from the very start i think you have the prescription for for a disaster in when you come down the road so i think the best practices simply fold out ears fingers and the ground and get a sense of what are the reality on the ground before you actually do too much else shashank sir now i'll combine two three questions for you uh because uh they require a perspective from indian side one is from professor ram barossa and he's from prayagaraj and he says how we can manage the greenery when the population density is so high and i would add that denmark has six million which is almost one third of delhi's population and uh we are 1.4 billion and then there is one question from lavanya in the chat box and it says uh how can we ensure that this collaboration will go beyond urban areas to rural areas and more remote areas in india and what kind of role civil societies can play here and then there's one more from sj sridevi what are the effective renewable energy models that can satisfy the needs of a populist country say for example india sir sham sir sorry well i would only say that this is really we have been using for a very long time that since our population is very high we cannot take care of the remote areas or we cannot really take care of the greenery green cover in the country because if you look at the density of population we are not really number one there are several countries ahead of us and many of them are developed countries i think i would name only two of them singapore and holland and they have some excellent technologies which they're using for water management for resource management and to make sure that the green cover is increased for example some of my friends went to holland and they said that look if you stay in a hotel and if you do bicycling during your spare time you are given reduction in the hotel cost because then you are able to generate some energy which goes into the grid of the hotel so there are all kinds of new ideas which have come up so why can't we think of an aya you know i mean really the uh i think our university people should come up with these philosophies as to the green cover should be maintained definitely and it's not necessary to remove the green cover to take care of all the needs of the population i'm quite sure that there are methods which can be taken care we should find out as somebody else asks from portugal as to what are the best practices so we can find out from whether denmark or other countries especially those with higher density of population city wise or country bias and see how they have been able to take care of their problems and keep their sustainable development goals in mind i'm quite sure that we should be able to do that and we really need especially academic people they need to study and bring it into the practical field as soon as possible thank you thank you shashank sir and finally because of positive time i'll club two three questions for his excellencies back with us on the panel and uh freddy sir there's one comment which has come and this is a b a i f development research foundation is a reputed civil society for almost five decades working in the field of rural development learning science and technology and they are interested in exploring any technology and project partnership number one please register this in your mind they might get in contact with you and the second uh question is that uh which is a general question they want you to comment on india denmark uh bilateral relations which is not the focus of the discussion right now but then within that broad area of the bilateral relationship what is the future of green strategy between india and denmark so freddie sir over to you you very much i mean let me say from the very outset whoever would like to connect with us and looking for a partnership working towards the green future we're ready so they can just contact me and then we will we'll connect and see what we can do let me just also say a few words about the rural india and we believe that the future of india very much very much lies with the rural districts that's why we like this year in fact uh uh launched a special program with eunups which is a small u.n organization uh headquartered in fact in copenhagen and dial shakti so we set aside uh quite a big amount of money at least in danish context uh for supporting 11 districts in up uh in their implementation of the uh given mission until given mission is really focusing on bringing tap water to the rural household so we are working with the rural districts and we sincerely believe that in order to avoid a little bit too many people moving to the urban centers then we have to strengthen the infrastructure we have to help people getting a better livelihood in in in the rural india and that's what we are doing as well um the future the green strategic partnership yeah that that's only that can only be one answer to that to secure that we reach the goal that we would like to have and we are forced to reach namely a far better greener and sustainable development and we're bringing our skills to india we're not telling india what to do but we would like to inspire india and all our companies they are out here they're not just seeing india as a marketplace to sell their products they are they are investing here they are creating jobs and one thing which many people often tend to forget is that if you invest in a green technology you are in fact also creating a lot of new permanent jobs and india being one of the demographically at least one of the youngest nations on earth you need to create tons of jobs every month and the best recipe here would be to combine your development the sustainability and cr activating your younger generations in that trajectory that's a green future that's why we really decided on this green strategic partnership it's a different approach it's not about really bringing denmark and india to closer together this is to develop a recipe a platform for a far better future and we know that india has to be part of the equation that's why we decided to work with india and of course india decided to work with us that's the future and that's where we are heading towards thank you so there are many questions and comments in the chat box and q a box as well and i've done justice to most of them however because of the positive time we have to wind up this session also so as a chair to conclude our discussion today and what we got from the panel uh freddy sir yes i agree that india is youngest nation and the oldest civilization and it's it's a perfect combination you know to move on to the path of development with as much as energy and enthusiasm that we can have now if we look at and calculate the per capita damage done to the environment and climate you know there is there is no statistics that can justify even a slightest damage done to the environment because i agree with shashank you know when he says that in in in our civilization the the you know attitude towards environment climate but they have become one statement summarizes it all that how we have uh used uh our en environment our climate in in in the very fact that we do not differentiate between humanity and the nature out there but unfortunately as the material density has gone up because of industrialization and development somewhere the value system has got diluted and this does not get reflected in the way we treat our nature the way we treat our climate and and the greater issues now yes uh i agree y'all that size and numbers do matter because they are actually bringing about a substantial change and even if we calculate even if we have a small per capita damage done in in a large population that's greater than you know the greater damage done to the in a lesser number so we have to keep into account that what are the local solutions to the global problems such as climate change and finally i would say you know that um yes post pandemic this was one of the areas which were which was supposed to be discussed and thanks for bringing it and there is a cut elastic campaign which has begun you know uh because of these masks that we wear and there's an elastic and a lot of this is going and ending up in the oceans damaging them and polluting them to the large extent and because the animal and the officials they they face a problem with this elastic getting entangled in their beaks or necks or you know almost killing them fatal in some cases so uh pandemic also has thrown open many challenges uh to the already existing urgency of tackling the climate change and finally i would say you know that yes um uh the countries which are low-lying countries or uh the sea lions or shorelines whatever you can say there's an urgency to address these needs no matter how much high you rate yourself up on the developmental scale it's actually you know the the substantive outcomes that matter at the end of the day because climate is going to spare none despite who you are or any community race or religion thank you very much uh for being there on the panel and i thank all the participants those who have made this discussion very lively and i am honored to be with all of you once again thank you diplomatist and kanchi over to you thank you thank you professor dr sharma i wish to thank all the speakers partners and our participants for making this discussion a success it was indeed and i mean it very engaging um as ambassador freddie said that it is the first time that denmark and india have concluded such a partnership of this sort elevating ties to green strategic partnership today we ask all of you to be architects of better world and let me wish you sustainable inclusive and rewarding business and the best of the five thank you so much thank you thank you very much [Music] you

Channel: The Diplomatist

Views: 63

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Denmark, Webinar, diplomatist, Denmark-india, green, Strategic, Partnership, renewable energy, climate change, energy

Id: aATYMy2BMNU

Length: 79min 56sec (4796 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 02 2021