To combat and guide the world’s heaviest greenhouse gas emitting industries toward the low-carbon economy a new initiative was launched at the UN Climate Action Summit to help guide on 23rd September.

India and Sweden together with Argentina, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, South Korea and the UK, as well as a group of companies including Dalmia Cement, DSM, Heathrow Airport, LKAB, Mahindra Group, Royal Schiphol Group, Scania, SpiceJet, SSAB, ThyssenKrupp and Vattenfall, announced a new Leadership Group for Industry Transition that will drive transformation in hard-to-decarbonize and energy-intensive sectors. 

This global initiative will be supported by the World Economic Forum, the Energy Transitions Commission, Mission Innovation, Stockholm Environment Institute, and the European Climate Foundation among many others in an ambitious, public-private effort, to ensure heavy industries and mobility companies can find a workable pathway to deliver on the Paris Agreement.

While welcoming this new public-private partnership, Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum said: “There is a huge level of support and enthusiasm in the private sector to engage with governments and peers to reduce emissions across their operations and value chains.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “each one of us has to discharge climate responsibilities based on our situations and capacities. I hope that work under the industry transition track will facilitate early diffusion of technology and support to developing countries in this journey”.

The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres hosted the Climate Action Summit in New York ahead of the UN General Assembly. The Secretary-General called on all leaders – governments, the private sector, civil society, local authorities and other international organizations – to come with concrete, realistic plans that will boost ambition and rapidly accelerate action to implement the Paris Agreement.

In order to accelerate action to implement the Paris Agreement, the Climate Action Summit focuses on nine interdependent tracks, which are led by 19 countries in total and are supported by international organizations.

India along with Sweden, supported by World Economic Forum is leading the ‘Industry Transition’ track meeting.

Union Environment Minister, Prakash Javadekar while addressing a press conference said that the last two days have seen major takeaways including the decision that heavy industries who are doing their bit on their own, without any external help, have decided to have a low carbon path.

Industry sector emissions, including those from hard-to-abate and energy-intensive sectors like steel, cement, aluminum, aviation and shipping are expected to be responsible for 15.7Gt by 2050. The international collaboration between countries and industry groups is critical to establish workable policy frameworks and incentives, and to enable joint investment into low carbon infrastructure.