SMEs: Rising Opportunities in the Emerging Blue Economy

Abstract

UNFCCC in one of its reports (August 2007) has made an analysis of the projected future investments and financial flows across different regions of the world, for the year 2030.The report predicted that between 2000 and 2030, developing Asia’s share in the global investment would rise sharply and the slower economic growth of OECD regions would pull their share of global investment to a lower level. The study has also indicated that between 2000 and 2030, total fuel consumption and emission – both would rise steeply in the developing countries. In the developed OECD countries, it is projected to decline substantially. Thus, the developing economies of the South would increasingly turn ‘blue’ and the developed economies of the North would become ‘green’. It is expected that the economic condition of the hungry millions will improve though at the cost of their health and environment. However, it may be assumed that with the improvement of the economic condition, more funds would be diverted towards development of better production techniques to control/mitigate pollution. As the possibility of parceling pollution to other less developed regions does not exist (there is no south to south pole!), with the improved production techniques, all the economies across the globe would turn ‘green’ in the long run. May be, the regulatory issues on ‘global warming’ are playing the role of a great equalizer, by default.