The report from the UK-India Business Leaders Climate Group (BLCG) looks at the practical steps necessary to deliver a low-carbon economy. It sets out a Charter of Principles as well as practical ways that India and the UK can work together to unlock a new era of green growth and economic collaboration within cleantech.
Recommendations that will be implemented by the group include:
- An online Clean Technology Development Directory of early stage Indian technologies across a range of sectors that provides relevant data to prospective UK investors;
- A Low Carbon Capital Manual, providing technical information on the financial tools, and the methods for creating them, for raising capital and increasing public private investment in low-carbon projects in India;
- A high-level Low Carbon Economy Summit to be held in India in 2011 that will bring together the private equity/venture capital community in the UK with the technology innovators of India.
The Charter of Principles builds on the relative strengths of the UK and Indian business communities and is aimed at boosting UK-India investment and trade in both directions, driving innovation and reducing the cost of cutting emissions. Key recommendations include:
- The development of joint demonstration projects to raise awareness of opportunities for low-carbon economic growth and to provide impetus for investment;
- The creation of innovative financing instruments and the removal of barriers to capital flows to stimulate investment in the low-carbon economy;
- Improved exchange and dissemination of information to support low-carbon business decisions and collaboration;
- Joint R&D programmes and a skills exchange to accelerate low-carbon innovation and technology development;
- Effective regulatory frameworks to support the transition to a prosperous low-carbon economy;
- Greater participation by businesses in the framing of climate change and low-carbon development policy – both domestically and internationally.
