A big thank you to the 60+ participants of our seminar Phase out to phase down. 

While many of countries have doubled-down on their commitments to reducing forest-loss and emissions, China and India sparked the last-minute intervention to water down language on phasing out coal.

China and India are the two biggest producers, consumers and importers of coal.

At COP26 - UN Climate Change Conference, countries committed to new, ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions this decade. Delivering on these promises will rely on the development, financing and scale up of green technologies. China and India, the two biggest producers, consumers and importers of coal, sparked the last-minute drama at the COP26 talks by forcing a compromise that led from "phase out" to be changed to "phase down." 
 

What does this mean? And what about Norway and Norways role at COP26? 

We invited the following for a c-suite conversation: 
- Stig Traavik, Director of Climate & Environment in Norad - the Norwegian Govt Agency for Development Cooperation

-Truls Gulowesen, Managing Director of Naturvernforbundet. 

- As well as Surbhi Singvi, manager for energy, World Business Council For Sustainable Development (WBCSD)

and asked them:

• What are the implications of the coal language in the Glasgow pact? 
• India drew severe criticism from the phase down approach, what’s your perspective on that?
• What are the outcomes of the decisions made at COP26 and the implications on India? 
• A related question, Will India seek to prolong their dependence on coal for longer than they have publicly stated because of the change from "out" to "down"?
• Norway’s role at COP26.
• The pledge to provide $100bn annually by 2020 has not been met, and countries with less resources are demanding action. Now, The amount of money rich countries give to the developing world to help it cope with climate change was one of the big battles of the COP26 climate summit. Norway has doubled its climate finance support. Why did Norway do that? And what are Norway’s expectations from that aid ?
• It is going to be hard enough for developed countries to adjust to the need to remove fossil fuels and carbon from their economies however, it is going to be far more challenging in developing nations, where there is much less money to pay for new infrastructure and technology. How do you see India in this landscape?
• India is in a unique situation where it's facing some of the worst impacts of climate change. Is it time to take a more pro-active international role?
• Gen Z climate warriors like Greta Thunberg have shown their disappointment with the actions in the direction of climate, what do you all think about it?

Did you miss the latest comment on COP26? You can read it below:

Når vi rike forurenser er det lov, men når land som Kina og India forurenser er det etisk uforsvarlig

Investors have been pouring money into India’s stock market, and it could grow to more than $5 trillion to become the fifth largest in the world within three years, according to Goldman Sachs.

We invited Abhishek Thepade from DNB, Norways largest financial services group and one of the largest in the Nordic region, for a podcast conversation. Abhishek Thepade joined DNB Asset Management in 2008. He is currently the portfolio manager for Emerging market funds at DNB. He has over 12 years of experience in investing and currently is responsible for investments into Asian markets like India, China, Korea and Taiwan. He has a MSc in Financial analysis and Fund management from the University of Exeter, UK.

In this live podcast we ask him the following questions:

• India could surpass the UK as the world’s 5th largest stock market by 2024, a new Goldman report says. What do you think? Why should we invest in Indian stocks?
• The pipeline for future public listings is expected to remain robust over the next two years. As portofolio manager at the largers Nordic bank, DNB, what do you think?
• The pipeline for future public listings is expected to remain robust over the next two years. How do you choose funds and companies in your portifolio?
• Food delivery firm Zomato became the first of a slate of prominent names to be publicly listed. Others in the pipeline include payments giant Paytm, ride-hailing start-up Ola and e-commerce firm Flipkart. Can Norwegians buy stocks in these companies? 
• Analysts expect segments like e-commerce, internet, internet retail and media to have more weight on the indexes, through the consumer discretionary and communication services sectors. What is your take?

Listen to the podcast talk here. 

One of Norway's leading experts on China, Knut Sørlie, joined us for this podcast episode. Listen to the episode and hear what he and Rina Sunder have to share when it comes to the questions: 

• Why does China have a 5 year plan?
• What is the status of the plan?
• Status on India. Is India operating with a 5 year plan?
• Who has adopted the plan?
• We often hear Modi talk about a self sufficient India. What lies in that concept?
• What is the main element of the plan?
• China and India's relationship seems conflicted. Can India compete with China in terms of planning?

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2020 har vært et markant vanskelig år for de to landene. Den pågående Himalaya-grensekonflikten har ført til bilaterale krise. India har begrenset kinesiske investeringer i India og utestengt hundrevis av kinesiske mobilapplikasjoner som zoom og tiktok. India er fortsatt avhengig av kinesiske varer, men trapper veldig opp At manirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan or Self-reliant India campaign ble lansert i fjor. Dette betyr at landenes handels- og investeringsforbindelser kanskje aldri blir de samme.

India pleide å operere med 5-årsplaner. Men planleggingskommisjonne ble oppløst i 2014. Dette er noe Modi offetnliggjore i sin tale på Indias nasjonaldag i 2014. Etter oppløsingen er det ikke laget flere formelle planer for økonomien, men det ble laget en fem års forsvarsplan. I lang tid hadde det vært en oppfattelese at sentral planlegging ikke fungerer i et så mangfoldig og stort land som India. 29 delstater og 7 unionsterritorier. Planleggingskommisjonen som ble erstattet av NITI Aayog. Det er viktig å merke seg at dokumentene til NITI Aayog ikke har noen økonomisk rolle. De er bare retningslinjer for regjeringen.

India hoppet til 63. posisjon i Verdensbankens rapport Ease of Doing Business 2020. I 2019-rapporten hadde India forbedret sin rangering på seks av de ti parametrene knyttet til å starte og drive forretning i et land. I 2010 til sammenligning var India på 133. plass. 

Begrepet Atmanirbhar Bharat har blitt brukt i forhold til å gjøre India "til en større og viktigere del av den globale økonomien", med mål om å føre en politikk som er 

• effektiv, 
• konkurransedyktig 
• motstandsdyktig, 
• selvbærende 
• og selvgenererende. 

Andre temaer som ble snakket om i denne podcasten er:

• Flere prognoser og rapporter viser at India ville bli den fjerde største økonomien innen 2030, og den tredje største innen 2050 - en plass landet vil fortsette å beholde frem til år 2100.
• Med sine 500 millioner arbeidstakere er den indiske arbeidsstyrken verdens nest største..
• Halvparten av indias befolkning er under 25 år. 
• Gjennomsnittladren i India var i 2020 29 år, mot 37 år for Kina og 48 år for Japan