Neena Gill (West Midlands, Labour MEP): The financial crisis in the US will have a serious impact on Britain and Europe's economic outlook for years to come. Unsustainable dependence on the world's number one economy, which now faces the threat of a recession as grave as that of the 1930s, brings with it a risk of job losses across Britain and Europe.
All this comes at a time when the disastrous repercussions of climate change are darkening the Earth's future. Yet each new challenge brings new opportunities. Solutions for climate change could benefit not only the companies that develop and profit from them, but global society as a whole.
There is a pressing need for Britain and Europe to diversify their economic and political interests outside their traditional purview by forging partnerships with tomorrow's global champions. In particular, Europe must seize the opportunity to invest jointly with India in sustainable ecological initiatives.
The modern world is witness to the rise of a new sense of global equality, in which India has opened up to Britain and Europe as a partner. This is because India has proved an economic force to be reckoned with. But can it also take a lead among emerging economies when it comes to sustainable models for development?
With the 2004 EU-India Strategic Partnership providing a solid framework for dialogue and business cooperation, new opportunities are opening up for Europeans and Indians who wish to find joint answers to climate change. This is particularly the case in the development of energy-efficient and affordable renewable technologies. Indeed, the EU's strategic partnership with India has reinforced mutual concerns by highlighting not only a collective desire to guarantee energy security but also a shared passion for researching new solutions.
Take, for example, wind energy, a sector expected to grow by twenty-five percent during the next five years. A decade ago Suzlon, India's first home-grown wind technology company, was set up with only twenty people. Today it is the number five windmill producer in the world, with a workforce of over 13,000. And, with an international business model focusing on research and development, Suzlon has founded innovation centres in Germany and the Netherlands.
India must continue to pursue the technological research that drives economic development (a necessity if it is to lift its poorest 300 million citizens out of extreme poverty). The country has a tradition of resourcefulness, recycling waste we in the West would not contemplate re-using. In Kerala, plastic rubbish is collected and mixed with asphalt to build new roads. Although currently at test phase, this could prove extremely valuable to India's huge road construction efforts. The West can learn a lot from imaginative schemes such as these.
When forming partnerships with India, EU countries should therefore think less about what they can export to the subcontinent, and more about the progresses India has made herself. Today more than ever before the future of financial and ecological sustainability in Britain, Europe and India is intertwined. Cooperation between these important world economies will need to deepen if global sustainable development is to succeed.
Neena Gill MEP is Chair of the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with India
