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India Must Become World’s First Country to Industrialise without Carbonising, says Amitabh Kant

While delivering the opening address at Connect Karo 2023, Kant said that the country must become the champion of climate action, energy transition, green hydrogen and sustainable public transportation.

July 18, 2023. By Anurima Mondal

WRI India organised its flagship event Connect Karo 2023 during July 17-18 at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The event offered a platform for multiple stakeholders from India and abroad to share their perspectives and experiences as well as to ease collaborations toward finding meaningful responses to critical environmental and sustainability challenges.

While delivering the opening address at Connect Karo 2023 organized by WRI India, India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant set a high target for India, stating that India must become the first country in the world to industrialise without carbonising.

Launching the two-day conference, Kant said, “India as a country occupies just 1.3 percent of the total carbon space available (in the world) today. But the way we will urbanise and indurstrialise in the future, we will become the third-largest carbon emitter in the world in due course. It is important that India as a country, both from the perspective of climate action and technology, leapfrogs and makes a substantial difference as for as action on the climate front is concerned.”

He added that India must take a leadership position technologically and in climate action. The country must become the champion of climate action, energy transition, green hydrogen and sustainable public transportation.

Under its theme ‘For People, Nature, and Climate’, day one of the conference saw the release of new research and thought-provoking sessions on issues related to urban planning, water and resilience, integrated and electric mobility, climate and energy.

A panel on ‘Financing Clean Energy Transition for India’ offered insights towards ensuring that the investments needed to achieve India’s climate targets are catalysed. The discussion looked at multiple financing possibilities, including de-risking and insuring businesses that are attempting a low-carbon transition; and explored avenues for the participation of private and public sector financial institutions.

The session ‘Expanding the Limits: Making the Clean Energy Growth Circular’, focused on the need for a circular economy within the clean energy transition since the materials required to extract renewable energy are limited.

Panelists looked at the various dimensions of India’s public and private sectors rapidly adopting circularity as a production practice, and the evolving governance structures that can help ensure that the resource use for the clean energy transition is socially and environmentally just and responsible.

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green hydrogen production

Sustainable transportation

Sustainable urban development