ISID organised a Policy Roundtable on “Opening Green Windows: Technological Opportunities for a Low Carbon World” on April 27, 2023. The presentation was made by Dr Clovis Freire Jr. of UNCTAD who shared the key highlights of UNCTAD’s Technology and Innovation Report 2023 from an Indian perspective. The presentation was commented upon by three distinguished panellists: Prof Suma Athreye of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and ISID; Dr Rasmus Lema of UNU-MERIT, Maastricht, the Netherlands; and Dr Easwaran Narassimhan of Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi and Tufts University. Prof Nagesh Kumar moderated the roundtable which was followed up by a rich open discussion with audience that included distinguished scholars like Prof Thomas Pogge of Yale University.
UNCTAD’s TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION REPORT 2023 highlights the opportunities that green innovation – goods and services with smaller carbon footprints – offer developing countries to spur economic growth and enhance technological capacities. The report analyses the market size of 17 green and frontier technologies, such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and electric vehicles, and their potential to create jobs. Now is the time for developing countries to capture more of the value being created in this green tech revolution – and use it to grow their economies, make them more resilient to shocks and reduce inequalities. UNCTAD calls on their governments and business communities to invest in more complex and greener sectors, boost technical skills and scale up investments in the technology infrastructure needed to grow green industries. To support this evolution, the report urges the international community to make global trade rules more supportive of emerging green industries in developing economies and reform intellectual property rights to facilitate technology transfer to these countries.