Day 43 – Q. 2 In the last few years, the question of environmental sustainability has become increasingly important for industrial policy. Do you think the concerns for the environment should be viewed as an opportunity and not as a roadblock while designing the industrial policy? Why or why not? Substantiate with the help of suitable arguments.

In the last few years, the question of environmental sustainability has become increasingly important for industrial policy. Do you think the concerns for the environment should be viewed as an opportunity and not as a roadblock while designing the industrial policy? Why or why not? Substantiate with the help of suitable arguments.

पिछले कुछ वर्षों में, औद्योगिक नीति के लिए पर्यावरणीय स्थिरता का प्रश्न तेजी से महत्वपूर्ण हो गया है। क्या आपको लगता है कि औद्योगिक नीति तैयार करते समय पर्यावरण की चिंताओं को एक अवसर के रूप में देखा जाना चाहिए न कि एक बाधा के रूप में? क्यों या क्यों नहीं? उपयुक्त तर्कों की सहायता से सिद्ध कीजिए।

Approach

Candidates can start the answer by writing on environment sustainability and then as per questions demand write both side of arguments.

Introduction

Environmental sustainability can be defined as the ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Body

Opportunity to build better industrial policy:

• Nature-Based Solution (NBS) industrial policy: Sustainable management and use of nature for tackling industrial challenges. NBS creates harmony between people and nature, enables ecological development and represents a holistic, people-centred response to climate change.
• Effective Waste Management: For the water-heavy industries of pharmaceuticals, paper, food and beverage, adopting best practices in minimising water consumption would progress them towards Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD).
• Bio-treatment of industrial effluents such as chemicals, detergents and toxic sludge are also well within our capacities, but their compliance needs to be mandated to keep the rivers clean.
• Structural economic change with environment sustainability, green industrial policies, and investments in green industries in support of SDG 9 can operationalize the structural change necessary for economic recovery, competitiveness, and new jobs (SDGs 1, 8, and 9), while respecting planetary boundaries.
• Carbon-based energy generation, with bad AQI to one powered by renewable energy in order to provide the means that are both economical and mitigate against climate change.
• Resource efficiency and reuse of secondary resources has enormous potential to save energy. Scarcity of resources and their measurement is at the centre of the Green Economy and resource efficiency can help solve this problem.

Limitations and challenges in transition to environment sustainability from tried-and-true traditional industrial policy:

• Increasing Densification-prompted activities causing a rapid loss and fragmentation of both public and private green space and sustainability are one of the major challenges influencing green industrial policy.
• Developing country like India often don’t have the financial resources to plan and implement sustainable projects.
• Governments are unwilling to manage or incapable of managing the tension between ready profit and the long-term costs of shifting toward sustainable development, even when those long-term investments might pay off in the future.
• Fruits of the transition to environment sustainability may not be evenly distributed and will require a range of social and labour market policies that address adverse impacts, safeguard the vulnerable and deliver a just transition.

Conclusion

Sustainable industrial development offers plenty of economic benefits. The industry itself promotes jobs and income associated with reducing environmental impact. Improved environmental performance can also lead to increased labor productivity and product quality, contributing to a healthier economy and also  require a perhaps unprecedented degree of global coordination.