In 2015, India grabbed attention among environmentalists,
politicians and economists by announcing a targeted $250 billion investment
into power generation, by the decade’s end. Impressively, $100 billion of this
would be invested into renewable solar power energy.
According to Huffington Post, on Feb. 10, the United
States filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO), stating that
“India may be unfairly supporting the development of its solar power industry.”
Huffington further calls this complain ‘misguided,’
which is interesting.
To boost manufacturing, under a bigger program called “Make
in India,” the Modi government has required that half the solar cells and
modules under Phase II of the initiative be made in India. The U.S. does not
agree.
The United States Trade Representative’s office moved
to WTO against India’s domestic content requirements, saying it is
discriminatory toward their U.S. solar cell developers and would hurt their
exports. Since India enacted this domestic production requirement policy in
2011, U.S. exports of solar equipment to India have fallen by over 90 percent.
It should not matter
who gets to gain financially so long as the idea is to promote renewable
energy.
According to Big News
Network, “The United States is keen to get India to change the requirements for
domestic content as it is the second largest market after Japan.”
But at a time where
pollution levels in India are increasing at an alarming rate, the focus should
be quick and sustainable action, and not cat fight over who gets to gain the
most.
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Profit tends to be pursued above all else in our society. Despite the positive direction that India is going the United States is willing to protect their profits. Is all of the energy being implemented renewable? Or is it just the solar energy?
ReplyDeleteA major part of this increased energy production will be renewable, given the abundant wind and solar energy India has. Solar energy, obviously is great too. People have already started installing solar panels at homes, so it's looking really positive.
DeleteI think it is too bad that there are many people out there that worry about profits more than the sustainable future that India has started for itself. If Indian consumers could've afforded to buy U.S. products then they probably would've instead of producing them domestically. That's how economics should work, if the Indian producer has a comparative advantage on the U.S. producer then they should make the product. This also reminds me of U.S. oil and natural gas companies trying to justify fracking while everyone knows it is bad for the environment.
ReplyDeleteI agree.
DeleteFree trade makes sense, but I am so divided in situations like these.
I think it is too bad that there are many people out there that worry about profits more than the sustainable future that India has started for itself. If Indian consumers could've afforded to buy U.S. products then they probably would've instead of producing them domestically. That's how economics should work, if the Indian producer has a comparative advantage on the U.S. producer then they should make the product. This also reminds me of U.S. oil and natural gas companies trying to justify fracking while everyone knows it is bad for the environment.
ReplyDelete