The Guardian view on India’s green growth gamble: it will need more than private finance | Editorial

The world’s most populous country needs state-generated demand to industrialise, decarbonise and avoid China’s overcapacity trap India is attempting to do something the world has never seen before. So claimed Niti Aayog, the government of India’s policy thinktank, earlier this year. It said that no major economy has tried to expand GDP nearly eightfold within a generation while simultaneously redirecting its energy and industrial systems to reach net zero within two generations. Hence its detailed report ’s claim that there is “no historical precedent”. There is something to this. China indust