India made a decisive commitment at COP26 to achieve net zero by 2070. While 2070 seems like a long way away, any climate expert will tell you otherwise. The most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has again emphasised the dangers lurking around the corner, given the lack of urgent action by most nations. The question the report has thrown up is, are we doing enough as a nation?
India has admittedly made great strides in adoption of renewable energy, especially solar, in recent years. We have even met some of our committed targets ahead of time. Globally, India has pushed developed countries to take on more of the responsibility, and demanded climate finance for mitigation and adaptation to countries like India. This effort at achieving equity and climate justice is indeed laudable.
But domestically, two major changes in perspective are needed within India.
One, addressing Climate Change will not be just about adoption of renewable energy or clean mobility. It will need to be a cross-sectoral approach, covering agriculture, food systems and land-use, de-carbonisation of industries such as cement and steel, energy efficient construction, new bio-materials, carbon capture technologies, and other such efforts. Each sector, state, and ministry will have a role to play. Climate technology needs to have a transformative impact across sectors, just the way Internet has had over the last decade or so.
Two, India’s public and private sectors must see Climate Change not just as a challenge, but also as a massive economic opportunity. As I argue in ‘The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and the Destinies of Nations’, we are undergoing a once-in-an-era energy transformation, and this transition is likely to throw up new economic winners and losers. India needs to understand that this global transition is an opportunity for India — and Indian companies — to leapfrog other nations. This could be India’s steam engine moment.
India must urgently conceptualise a ‘Climate India Movement’ and bring a whole-of-government and whole-of-economy approach to this. We have a rather successful model in the Digital India movement that we could leverage — or at least learn from — on the climate front. Like Digital India, the ‘Climate India Movement’ could help align the private, public, and non-profit sectors to kick-start innovation in this space.
As with efforts such as UIDAI, we must develop a clear organisational structure that allows for cross-functional teams of public servants, private sector experts, and researchers to come together. We must appoint sectoral experts as heads of these initiatives with clear responsibilities, and targets.
Three priorities must be emphasised. One, we need the enabling infrastructure, and policy frameworks. Take for instance how the UID/Aadhaar project — combined with UPI — transformed financial inclusion and payments in India by allowing a wide range of apps to be built on top of it.
For the climate challenge, similarly, significant digital public infrastructure needs to be built, over which entrepreneurs could build technology solutions. Better measurement and tracking of sectoral and regional emissions, along with opening up of climate-related datasets for entrepreneurs and researchers, would be a good start.
Two, we must incentivise greater climate-focused R&D in the private and public sectors, especially in the fields of agriculture, food, building energy efficiency, solar, decarbonising industries, and mobility. This will be essential if we want India-specific climate innovations to happen. European, Chinese and US R&D around climate might have limited applicability in India, given our different economic, industrial, and agricultural production, and emission patterns. For example, in India, agriculture is a big chunk of our overall emissions, but there is hardly any research focused on reducing those emissions by studying the specific crop patterns and agricultural practices of India. That needs to change.
Three, we must bolster the development of a climate tech ecosystem in India. Technology and tech startups have proven to be one of the most capital efficient ways of solving large problems at scale. Recognising this, Europe and the US have moved aggressively to rapidly develop their climate tech ecosystem. India should not get left behind. We should incentivise the inflow of research, capital, and talent into this space.
The agility with which our entrepreneurs as well as political and administrative leaders have taken up the Digital India mission must be replicated on the climate front. A dynamic, future-focused, successful ‘Climate India Movement’ would be an even bigger accomplishment than Digital India.
Anirudh Suri is a technology venture capitalist and author. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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