More than 100 participants deliberated on strategies for institutional strengthening for green growth, financing mechanisms, leveraging ESG ratings for green finance and realising net zero emission targets for achieving higher productivity and green growth
With climate change posing a real and imminent challenge, the Government of India is taking actionable steps to progress towards becoming a low carbon economy. National Productivity Council, DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, GoI and Asian Productivity Organization, Tokyo held an international conference on "Productivity and Green Growth: New Interlocking Paradigms" from 14 to 16 June 2023 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
It brought together more than 100 experts, policymakers, industry leaders, and stakeholders to discuss and explore strategies for institutional strengthening for green growth, financing mechanisms, leveraging ESG ratings to boost green finance and realizing net zero emission targets for achieving higher productivity and green growth.
About 26 international participants from 16 countries such as Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Fiji etc joined the conference representing the Asia-Pacific region. The conference was timely for India in view of the emphasis placed on green growth in the recent budget and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to achieve net zero by 2070.
APO Secretary General Dr. Indra Pradana Singawinata opened the conference and said that we needed to go beyond environmental protection and adopt a broader, more holistic measure of sustainable development that captures not only the ecological but also the social, cultural, and human dimensions of well-being.
Ensuring that sustainability is inclusive means guaranteeing the involvement of all stakeholders in decision-making processes, especially those most affected by environmental challenges.
Sundeep Kumar Nayak, IAS, Director General, NPC explained how NPC has been promoting productivity enhancement making the country move towards green growth. He also elaborated the need to prioritize green finance in decoupling industrial growth from environmental degradation and highlighted practical approaches to achieve the same.
APO National Awards for the year 2022 were also announced during the conference, G.M. Rao, Group Chairman, GMR Group was conferred with APO National Award for Productivity Advocate for his exemplary work in championing the cause of productivity. Professor Pradip Kumar Ray, Emeritus Professor, IIT Kharagpur was conferred with APO National Award for Productivity Technical Expert in recognition to his grass root level work encompassing productivity modelling, ergonomics, safety engineering, and lean engineering operations management.
An Outlook special collector’s edition on sustainable development was released during the opening session of the conference. The special edition highlights and focuses on various aspects of Green Growth (GG) and Green Productivity (GP), transition to circular economy, assuming more significance in the context of India taking up a leadership role globally in pursuing low carbon growth in recent years; with case studies and case examples of various countries.
The conference was addressed by international experts including Dr. Hung Suck Park Distinguished Chair, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Ulsan College, Ulsan, ROK; Dr. Kaushik Deb, Senior Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University, USA and Nicholas Gandolfo, Director, Sustainable Finance Solutions (AsiaPacific), Sustainalytics, Singapore. Indian resource speakers included Dr. M. V. Rao, Chairman, West Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission, Prof. Ganesan Kannabiran, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Chitoor and J. Nagesh Kumar, Chennai based energy expert. The conference witnessed active participation and fruitful discussions, enabling participants to gain new insights, exchange ideas, and foster collaborations.