The country has no competition in this field, thereby opening the way for it to become a mega-producer of green energy, says Amitabh Kant, Sherpa – G20, Government of India

“For India, climate action is not a challenge, but an opportunity. It’s for two reasons – First, we are blessed in terms of climate and our entrepreneurial ecosystem. And the second is that India will become the first country to be industrialised without carbonising, only with green hydrogen,” said Amitabh Kant, Sherpa – G20, Government of India.

Kant presented his foresight of making India an exporter of renewable and green energy and said that the country has no competition in this field, thereby opening the way for it to become a mega-producer of green energy. Speaking at the 9th Annual Forum of the Public Affairs Forum of India (PAFI), he explained that if the companies continued to take climate action, it would attract more capital speeding up the growth of the nation. While talking about India’s agenda at G20, he said that India’s G20 presidency came at a time when there were multiple challenges in the world, including the Russia-Ukraine war, the China-Taiwan crisis, global supply chain disruptions, trade slowdown, high global debt, inflationary pressures etc. 

Kant said India would bring growth at the central stage and asserted that the reforms carried out by the Government in the last five years have put India on a growth trajectory for many decades to come. He further added that a study by PWC suggests that India will be the second largest country in terms of the size of its economy. He kept on saying that India needs to work on three areas – First, India should create a digital model replicable for other developing countries to follow. Second, achieve SDG by Digitisation and third, call for action against climate change as per the ‘Panchamrit’, announced by our esteemed Prime Minister in Glasgow.  

Stressing on the need for digitalisation, he said that in 2021, India’s real-time transactions moved up to a staggering 48.6 billion, almost three times that of China and close to seven times more than the combined payments volume of the world’s leading economies, including US, Canada, UK, France and Germany. He appreciated the efforts of the Government in creating a unique digital public infrastructure based on individual consent, a model that can be replicated across the world. 

The welcome note was delivered by Rajiv Aggarwal, Managing Committee Member, PAFI while the session was moderated by Rajan Anandan. The Thank You Note was delivered by Neelima Dwivedi, Managing Committee Member, PAFI.