Exclusive | Sweden keen on providing green solutions for India's hard-to-abate industries, says Swedish ambassador

Jan Thesleff, Swedish Ambassador to India

India and Sweden have taken a collaborative pledge to initiate energy transition practices in the industrial sector. In an exclusive interview to Moneycontrol, Jan Thesleff, Ambassador of Sweden to India, said Sweden will help India in its crusade for decarbonisation and scaling up of technology.

“India is the fifth biggest economy and it will soon be the third biggest economy...It offers the required scale for a small but advanced country like Sweden,” he said.

Thesleff said the LeadIT 2.0 programme, launched between India and Sweden in COP28 in Dubai, aims at providing incentives and green solutions for the hard-to-abate industries like metals, chemicals, cement, and transport. Under this partnership, the two countries are working around three pillars - sustainability, innovation and green transition.

Also read: If India fails to secure energy beyond fossil fuels, the world will fail: Danish climate minister.

As per the latest Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets, India has committed to reducing the emission intensity of its GDP by 45 percent by 2030 (from the 2005 level) and achieving about 50 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030. It also has launched the National Green Hydrogen Mission to achieve its target of net zero by 2070.

Scope of Partnership

When asked about the contours of the collaboration between the two countries, Thesleff said Sweden is providing the required technologies through the private sector and it is also engaging with some universities in India for training purposes.

For example, in Odisha, Swedish company SaltX has collaborated with Dalmia Bharat Limited for the production of climate-neutral cement. Mahendra Singhi, member of Board of Directors and Strategic Advisor, Dalmia (Cement) Bharat Ltd said SaltX with its electrification and carbon capture technology is helping their company with electrically produced cement.

Energy Transition

Talking about the India-Sweden Green Transition Partnership (ISGTP) launched in November 2022, Thesleff said team Sweden is working together with leading Swedish and Indian companies, agencies, and other key stakeholders to accelerate the pace of green transition by sharing expertise and industry knowledge through technical workshops, networking activities and dedicated meetings between key stakeholders from India and Sweden.

“Phase I of the partnership concentrated on identifying synergies within the iron and steel, cement, and automotive sectors via technical workshops involving prominent Indian companies. These workshops received positive feedback from participants from both India and Sweden, with several ongoing discussions concerning pilots and commercial projects. Building on the achievements of Phase I, team Sweden broadened the scope for Phase II to encompass additional energy-intensive sectors including refineries and petrochemicals, pulp and paper, and hospitality,” he said.

Green Hydrogen

On green hydrogen, Thesleff said in 2023, the India-Sweden Green Hydrogen Cluster was launched with the aim of supporting India’s aspiration to generate 28 million metric tons of cost-effective green hydrogen.

“The cluster addresses various requirements of technology exchange, capacity building and policy development. It aims to promote co-creation and enhance collaboration among key stakeholders thereby, contributing towards development and growth of the green hydrogen ecosystem in India. During Phase-I, workshops with six leading green hydrogen firms were conducted, resulting in over 20 collaboration opportunities between India and Swedish entities,” he said. These companies include ACME Group, Hygenco, Thermax, and H2e Power.

Through the National Green Hydrogen Mission, the Indian government aims to create 50 lakh tonnes or 5 million metric tonnes (MMT) of green hydrogen production capacity every year till 2029-2030. For this, 60-100 gigawatt (GW) of electrolyser capacity will be created and 125 GW of renewable energy capacity addition will be needed.

Green hydrogen is produced using renewable energy through electrolysis.

In the petrochemical sector, the Ambassador said Sweden has collaborated with Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), and Nayara Energy Ltd. In the iron and steel sector, these include Tata Steel, Jindal Stainless Group, JSW Steel, and SAIL. In the automotive sector, the companies include Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Mahindra and Mahindra Limited, JBM Group, and so on, Thesleff said, adding that in all these companies either they conducted some form of workshops or Swedish companies collaborated for technology and knowledge sharing. Moneycontrol has, however, not verified the scope of these collaborations with each of the mentioned Indian companies.