With environmental disasters emerging with alarming frequency across the world, the worst hit are the poorest of the poor. They are mainly in the Developing World and emerging economies. To expect them to bear the burden of environmental curbs is unjust and impractical. They believe their resources are better served in alleviating illiteracy, disease and poverty.

As the climate crisis intensifies, innovation in technology is crucial in protecting the environment. Green innovations, when applied to industry, must balance ecological concerns with profitability in order to be widely acceptable. The risks posed by climate change demand greater investment in industrial sustainability. Globally, there has been an unprecedented surge in sustainable investment. In the last two years alone, the value in major financial markets of sustainable investment has grown by 15 percent, according to a report by the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance (GSIA). India has a high potential for growth in sustainable investing. This capital could also play a critical part in bridging funding gaps in pollution and waste management.

Skilful diplomacy can unite the world’s elite, industrialised nations with the much poorer rest to reach a negotiated way forward in tackling emissions and other divisive environmental issues. These issues have led to the formation of new groups such as the V20 – comprising the most vulnerable countries of the world – to lay out proposals on how their “counterparts” should pay for their historical part in climate change.

SAccording to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), both developed countries and the emerging economies with large emissions will have to dramatically cut back on their emission growth. There is need to review current climate change policy development and potential legislative strategies. For example, India not only lacks specific legislation on climate change, there is also no prescribed oversight mechanism to ensure implementation of the policies (or State Action Plans on Climate Change) that the states propose to the central government.