Industry leaders have come together under the umbrella of India 2022 Coalition to address the climate change issues bogging the country. On Tuesday, about 300 business and government leaders will deliberate on finding solutions and achieving sustainability.
Launched in 2017, Xynteo, a Norway-based environmental advisory, is spearheading the platform for galvanising leaders and catalysing ideas. The global business coalition is committed to creating a new model of growth by 2022, industry leaders said.
This year, the partners have decided to focus on solving four challenges: finding clean energy solutions, establishing working models for managing plastic waste, delivering high quality and accessible diagnostic healthcare, and adopting the best sustainable mining practices.
Sanjiv Mehta, chairman & managing director, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, said, “We have started seeing traction. This is a business-led coalition. We have some of the most respected names internationally and from India. The whole idea was how can we come together, pull our resources and look at some of the impracticable problems that face society.”
He added, “Mining is so critical for our development but very clearly the perception of mining has got tarnished and we need to correct that by doing it in a sustainable fashion. The narrative on plastic has changed dramatically over the years as plastic as waste has created a big issue. So it is all about innovation, putting our collective might together, bringing in a fresh lens to look at whole problems and then working on pilots. And once we have got the proof of advances, then we will start working on scaling it up. That has brought us together.”
Thierry Pilenko, executive chairman, TechnipFMC, said, “Between the waste track and the energy track, we have found synergy. Once you take plastic waste you can actually recycle it to some extent, or you can transform it back to the state when it was in the form of a petroleum product. So it is back from plastic to fuel.” Mr. Pilenko said the coalition has identified some tangible projects which can be implemented the world over. He said, “We are now in a position to identify the technology at the right scale. That could be implemented to transform plastic waste into fuel. We have shortlisted three technologies, including one from India, which we think will be the most efficient by cost. In the next few months, we will build a business model around that and will start thinking about how to invest in the plant.”
Deepak Natrajan, CFO, Indian Region, Baker Hughes, a GE company, said, “The effort of this coalition is to come out with solutions to problems. We are having a constructive collaborative approach to overcome some of the challenges.” Satish Pai, managing director, Hindalco Industries, said, “The issues on mining are around environment, having the sustainable energy, handling the waste, livelihood and sanitation. The Aditya Birla group with presence across sectors can provide a platform where these projects can be piloted. And if they work, we can rapidly scale up.”
Harry Brekelmans, Project & Technology Director, Royal Dutch Shell, said the partnership was to support India in achieving its objectives to meet sustainable development goals. He said, “We are looking at sustainable solutions. It could be a combination of renewable energy coming together from wind, solar, also complimented by gas to make sure that we have reliable access to affordable energy. In addition we are looking at development of biofuels and particularly with respect to development of waste to fuel.”
