The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s 15th Environment & Energy Conclave discussed the road ahead for meeting India’s commitment towards a carbon-neutral economy.
The conclave was attended by Nick Low, British deputy high commissioner to east and northeast India: “We look forward to launching UK-India initiatives on electric mobility to accelerate clean energy transition. These will support decarbonisation of high emission sectors such as transport, which directly address climate change,” Low said.
He said the dedicated UK session covered potential partnerships with West Bengal on sustainable finance, green hydrogen, asset monetisation for renewable energy projects, carbon capture and storage, cable monitoring for the transmission and distribution sector, energy storage, EV skills apart from many others.
During the conclave, the template for state-level electric vehicle awareness portal was launched. The prototype portal can be used by other states to develop electric vehicle awareness platforms for their respective states. The state web portal intends to complement e-AMRIT.
Wael Mohamed Awad Hamed, ambassador, Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt, New Delhi, also attended the conclave. “For climate action, we need finance, finance and more finance. When we talk about growth, we need to talk about global growth, not of just one country but the global economy.” He also stated that the growth of developing countries positively impacts the developed countries.
Explaining the role of the government and trade, Abraham Stephanos, president of The Bengal Chamber, said: “To address the issues of climate change and achieve the mission of Sustainable Development Goals or SDG 17, the needs include appropriate policies both at government and business levels, financial models for implementations, technology back-up. Collaborations would be essential to enable these.”
Over the years, BCC&I has engaged with stakeholders for sustainable approaches from regional to international levels.
“The Bengal Chamber engages extensively with stakeholders from industrial regions in the districts to the international level to facilitate sustainable approaches. The chamber has organised multiple workshops on ESG and Sustainability Reporting in recent times. The encouraging feedback suggests that corporates in India are becoming more conscious of environment, sustainability and governance. The Bengal Chamber feels it is important to reach out to MSMEs as well to create sustainable value chains,” said Gautam Ray, senior vice-president and chairperson, energy and environment committee, BCC&I.
The chamber was selected by the COP26 authorities in presenting panel discussion on “Accelerating Electric Mobility with green jobs and gender parity” on November 10, 2021, at the green zone of COP26.
Libby Green, climate and energy lead, British High Commission, New Delhi, and Anna Shotbolt, deputy trade commissioner to South Asia, British High Commission, Delhi, were also present at the conclave.
The UK took part with a delegation on clean transition policies and technologies. Anna Shotbolt, Libby Green and Nick Low of the British deputy high commission launched a paper on “Roadmap for development of an Innovation Centre for Electric Mobility” at the conclave.
The innovation centre is an innovative, effective and sustainable solution for promoting brand neutral, unbiased facilities dedicated to providing free, non-technical education and information on electric vehicle technologies and encouraging electric vehicle uptake among all sections of the population. The centre will lead to a series of positive impacts, including boost in confidence among customers and hence increased adoption of electric vehicles, skill enhancement of staff and the development of innovative business models.
S. Suresh Kumar, IAS, additional chief power secretary, government of West Bengal, was present at the programme with other dignitaries.