India has the "intellectual capacity" and potential to be a model for the rest of the world in tackling environmental issues, especially through the use of renewable energy sources, Sweden's envoy for climate change has said.
Lars Ronnas, Swedish Ambassador for Climate Change, on his first visit to India, also asserted that there are "very strong interests" in his country for bilateral cooperation in this field.
"You (India) are the major economy, and China. And, it rests on India's shoulders...The responsibility and the challenges, as to how we should design our society. And India has the potential to be a model for the rest of the world," he said.
The climate change envoy also said that India is on the growth path to address needs of a large population and meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
"India also has a very young population who are driving things.
There are skilled people and you (India) have the knowledge and the intellectual capacity to do so. Also, the strong move towards use of renewable energy in India is encouraging," Ronnas told PTI in an interview.
Asked in what areas of environmental sectors Sweden can cooperate with India, he said, there are "good prospects" of Indo-Swedish collaboration.
There are scopes for working together in the area, from public transport to waste-to-energy, but first "we need to find a business model", the climate change envoy said.
"India and Sweden are different in size and other aspects. We are one of the top countries in innovation and business is global. And, we have some headways in terms of how to address waste, a major problem
in all mega cities. So, the scope for collaboration, I am quite convinced they are.
The initiative for any further partnership has to come from India, but "Sweden is willing", he said.
"We have a number of MoUs already. Our PMs (Narendra Modi and Stefan Lofven) met last year. The business councils in Sweden are very much engaged.
"So, there is a very strong interest in my country for collaboration.
We need to see how we can find collaborative approaches with different stakeholders," Ronnas said.