In the run up to Earth Day on Monday April 22, 2024, Indiaspora hosted the 4th Annual Climate Summit titled Urgent Climate Conversations: Our Planet at the Brink, held online, on April 4th and 5th.
MR Rangaswami, Founder & Chairperson of Indiaspora introduced the nonprofit as a force of good and reiterated the commitment of its members towards initiatives to avert the climate crisis.
He also spoke about the Corporate Eco Forum (CEF) of senior executives representing companies demonstrating a commitment to sustainability as core to business strategy.
Sustainability & Partnership Commitments From the White House
Andrew Mayock, Federal Chief Sustainability Officer, White House Council on Environmental Quality gave the opening keynote on Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries & Jobs through Federal Sustainability at the West Coast session.
He enumerated the initiatives including the electrification and shift in power supply to clean energy of the US government’s 640,000 vehicles and 300,000 buildings and government initiatives to make the supply chain more climate-smart and resilient. He spoke on programs like the $4.5 billion Buy Clean Initiative catalyzing low-carbon materials and increase in climate impact through domestic and international public and private sector partnerships including the 50-country Greening Government Initiative and the 13-state Federal-State Buy Clean Partnership.
Another public sector leader, Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs opined on the U.S.-India partnership in the energy space and declared India as US’s greatest energy partner in his talk titled Shared Challenges, Collaborative Solutions: The Climate Crisis through the US-India Lens.
“India is projected to double its power consumption by 2050. The question is if India will create sustainable economic growth in a way that is less damaging to the environment than what was chosen by the US, Europe or China.The answer to this question determines if we as a planet will succeed or fail in meeting the challenge of the climate crisis,” said Secretary Lu.
He added that India is looking for help from the private sector and its international partners to support PM Modi’s target of non fossil fuel production of 500 Giga Watt power by 2030.
“The US is working with India to support its rise as a global clean energy superpower. He mentioned a recent meeting between US Energy Secretary-Jennifer M. Granholm with India’s Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas- Hardeep Puri and their declaration that the US India partnership is the most important energy relationship in the world.
“In addition to working together on green energy transition goals, we are poised to launch the most expensive and sophisticated earth imaging satellite mission called NISAR this year to observe earth’s complex natural processes with the joint mission to share this data with the world to better understand and mitigate severe consequences of climate change,” said Secretary Lu.
Implementation of Initiatives to Fight the Climate Crisis
In a moderated chat between Rwitwika Bhattacharya – CEO, Swaniti Global Climate Policy & Governance and Aparna Shrivastav – Deputy Chief Climate Officer at U.S. International Development Finance Corporation facilitated by Clare Shakya – Global Managing Director, The Nature Conservancy, the experts shared views on the urgent need for finances to be directed towards initiatives and operationalization of global and local ventures to fight the climate crisis.
Climate Crisis is Not Gender Neutral and Not All are Impacted the Same Way and Need for Hyper Local Involvement
In her keynote on women bearing a disproportionate burden of the climate crisis, Dr.Soumya Swaminathan – Chairperson M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Former Chief Scientist, WHO, enumerated how women face terrific strain from the growing climate crisis because of not only child bearing and rearing duties but also as main water providers and cooks for the family. “Growing disruptions caused by the climate crisis have shown rising domestic violence and human trafficking incidents that impact women and children more. Climate change mitigation and adaptation policies need to involve women of various social sectors,” suggested Swaminathan.
“Local connections to create environmental conservation stewardship is pertinent. Looking at wildlife, agriculture, livelihood and sustainability together is the key,” said Krithi Karanth – CEO, Center for Wildlife Studies and National Geographic Explorer.
The important role of women engagement and community ownership at hyper local levels towards waste management and other enterprises to tackle the growing climate concerns was highlighted by Vishal Kumar – CEO, Waste Warriors.
The grim reality of more girls missing school due to climate change than because of patriarchy was reiterated, not just as a warning for the future but as a current happening that needs urgent intervention.
Climate change impacts the constitutional guarantee of right to life, the Supreme Court of India said in a recent judgment, emphasizing that India must prioritize clean energy initiatives such as solar power as citizens have a right to be free from the adverse effects of the climate emergency.
“Time is against us. Let us become accountable for all and ensure that no one is impacted negatively when a change is implemented,” said Nassima Sadar Gravier – Obama Leader ; Founder and CEO, Afro Climate in her talk titled From Crisis to Hope: Africa’s Promising Climate Narrative.
Respect For Ancient Local Wisdom
Arati Kumar Rao– National Geographic Explorer, BBC 100 Influential Women 2023, spoke about the traditional ways of rainforest harvesting and life in the Thar desert in India. She took the audience on an engaging photographic journey of life and living in the most populous desert of the world and highlighted examples of native wisdom and adaptability of the population in the desert that gets merely 100 mm of rain annually.
“I encourage you to tweak what you think about a desert. It not only supports the human populace but is home to a variety of wildlife including some endangered species, that have learnt to read the land and adopt,” said Rao.
The need for the governments to look at issues holistically and not in silos and to include the local population in decision making strategies was emphasized.
Conservation and Restoration of Nature in the Climate Crisis
“Most effective and inexpensive strategy amongst the various nature based strategies to conserve biodiversity while combating climate change is preventing deforestation,” said Seema Paul – Program Director at Sequoia Climate Foundation.
She spoke about equity in efforts to combat the climate change challenges and the need for equitable compensation towards displaced communities to prevent conflicts.
“Countries in the south are asking those nations that have caused the problems to go first in adapting mitigation steps and strategies,” commented Paul.
Role of Renewables
James Abraham, Founder & Chairman – Mynzo Carbon moderated a talk between Tejpreet Chopra – President & CEO, BLP Group/Industry.AI; and Srinivas Vishwanath – Chief Executive Officer of Vibrant Energy on the role of renewables in India.
The speakers expressed optimism about total elimination of fossil fuel for power and the reality of the availability of round the clock renewables power in India by 2030.
India’s Growth Opportunity
Climate tech as a massive promise in India, need for higher spending in research and development; innovation for India’s context, citizen led approaches supported by businesses and need for emerging economies to be supported in its efforts by advanced economies were the topics highlighted in the India Growth Opportunity panel of Mayur Singh – Co-founder at Green Collective; Hisham Mundol – Environmental Defense Fund’s Chief Advisor in India; Nikit Abhyankar – Scientist at Berkeley University , Sandeep Chandna – Chief Sustainability Officer, Tech Mahindra and Pragya Saboo – Principal at Climate Capital.
Global Wealth Inequality Led to Global Revolutions
“We are concerned optimists. History has shown that global wealth inequality has been the main reason for global revolutions and political instability,” said Gaurav Gupta -Global Managing Partner of Dalberg Advisors in his closing keynote on Navigating the next decade of multiple disruptions.