ANI
23 Jun 2022, 16:03 GMT+10
New Delhi [India], June 23 (ANI): Amid the severe challenges emanating from climate change, for the first time in human history a new paradigm is possible as the win-lose debate where choose was between development and the environment is being replaced by the win-win opportunity where rapid parallel progress on both economy and ecology can establish an ecological civilization.
Writing for the Global Order, Norwegian diplomat and former politician Erik Solheim said climate change and the environmental crisis become an opportunity for jobs and prosperity.
Solheim, who served in the Norwegian government from 2005-2012 as Minister of the Environment, slammed western criticism of India that argued that New Delhi was showing a lack of climate courage and blocking progress on climate issues.
He recalled that the "craziness of western arrogance" was at full display during the climate conference in Glasgow last year.
"India argued that the world should phase down rather than phase out coal, a small, hardly significant change of wording. Some western media, NGOs and politicians came down on India, blaming India for lack of climate courage and claiming that India was blocking progress," he said.
For many decades, Solheim said the debate in India was simple: Do we want to develop or do we want to care for the environment?"Economists argued that rapid development would always come with costs to mother earth while environmentalists countered that we should put the planet first. The economist always won this debate. Not surprisingly for nearly all Indians rapid development, bringing Indians out of poverty, was the number one priority," he said.
"The pattern was the same everywhere - rapid economic growth with a lot of harm both to the workforce and to the environment. When a country had become rich it started caring for the environment. This was true first in the UK, then in Germany and the rest of Europe, in North America, in Japan and Korea and most lately in China," he added.
According to the former Norwegian minister, the good news in the 21st century is that for the first time in human history a new development paradigm is possible.
"The win-lose debate where you had to choose between development and environment is replaced by the win-win opportunity where rapid parallel progress on both economy and ecology can establish an ecological civilization. Climate change and the environment crisis become an opportunity for jobs and prosperity," he said.
This win-win opportunity has arisen from the drop in the price of renewables.
"When the world came together for the famous disaster of climate talks in Copenhagen in 2009 all focus was on climate diplomacy. No one talked about the climate economy. I cannot remember anyone even hinting to a future with a 90% fall in the price of solar energy," he said.
Lauding the Indian Prime Minister, Solheim said no one has understood the climate economy better than Narendra Modi adding that he has cast around the Indian debate from win-lose to win-win. (ANI)
Get a daily dose of North Korea Times news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to North Korea Times.
More InformationMOSCOW, Russia: The UK newspaper, the Telegraph, has been blocked in Russia, following a request from the Russian prosecutor-general.The TASS ...
LAHORE, Pakistan - An Airbus 320 carrying 171 passengers narrowly avoided an accident at Allama Iqbal International Airport, Pakistan's second-largest ...
WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday vowed to "do all in my power" to protect a woman's ...
YANGON, Myanmar - According to military-run media, a junta delegation discussed nuclear technology collaboration with a Russian state-owned atomic energy ...
DHAKA, Bangladesh - The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is providing more than Tk2.3 crore in emergency funding ...
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodian villagers on the Mekong River have caught a stingray fish weighing 661 pounds, which is the ...
NEW YORK, New York - Wall Street struggled to find its footing on Wednesday after Fed chief Jerome Powell vowed ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: Due to persistent shortages of agricultural chemicals that threaten yields, U.S. farmers have cut back on using common ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: Raytheon Technologies and Northrop Grumman have won U.S. contracts to develop missiles to intercept hypersonic weapons.The decision means ...
NEW YORK, New York - Stocks in Asia fell sharply on Wednesday following large falls on Wall Street blamed on ...
NEW DELHI, India: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor Michael Patra says India's retail inflation is likely to breach ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: Despite weather and staffing issues resulting in travel disruptions, last week the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened ...