'Sustainable innovation isn't an option for India - it's essential'

摘要

If we pursue the same path as some of the highly developed countries, we are going to end up with a hugely resource-intensive pattern of growth, imposing major constraints on our society. It will simply not be practical, and we would have some very serious crises to handle as a result. So sustainable innovation isn't an option for India: it's absolutely essential. People need to be motivated to look for solutions, so we need the right policies in place to encourage them. In particular, we need to get our pricing right, especially when it comes to those resources which are going to be scarce. That means getting rid of some of the subsidies, explicit or hidden, which are encouraging their use. Take diesel. It is heavily subsidised, to the extent that if you don't have electricity, the simplest thing to do is to set up a diesel-generating system - rather than look for renewable solutions. So that is clearly not providing the right signals.