Nordics and India can power the green transition the world needs

(MainsGS2:Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.)

Context:

• Over the last decades, Nordic countries have been at the forefront of developing new green technologies and solutions such as hydrogen, offshore wind, batteries and carbon capture and storage.
• These solutions are essential for the world to succeed in the green transition it desperately needs.

Pioneering green technologies:

• The Nordics have succeeded in building stable, secure, welfare-based societies that, to a large extent, manage to meet the needs and the wishes of their inhabitants.
• Their common ambition is for the Nordic region to become the most sustainable and integrated region in the world by 2030. 
• They work together to build a green, competitive, and socially sustainable region, however, the Nordic countries alone cannot deliver the green transition the world requires. 
• Thus, together, the Nordics and India can deliver key technologies and solutions to stop climate change and boost green growth.

Intensify cooperation:

• At the Nordic-India Summit held in Copenhagen in May 2022, the five Nordic Prime Ministers and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to intensify cooperation on digitalisation, renewable energy, maritime industries, and the circular economy. 
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Growing trade links:

• The past year has seen a significant rise in trade and investments between Finland and India, and India has grown to become a priority country for Finland illustrated from the fact that Finland opened a new Consulate General in Mumbai.
• This further increases the number of Nordic representations in India’s commercial capital and will contribute to strengthening India-Finnish ties. 
• Trade between Norway and India has doubled in the last three years and the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund is likely to become one of India’s largest single foreign investors (around $17.6 billion). 
• 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. 
• Almost ₹1,500 crore have been invested so far in India through the climate investment fund, and the number of investments is increasing rapidly.

Conclusion:

• 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.