TERI at RD20 2025
TERI played a significant role in the 7th RD20 conference, held in Tsukuba, Japan, from September 30 to October 3, 2025. The event convened leaders from 22 research institutes across 18 G20-affiliated countries to boost R&D collaboration aimed at achieving carbon neutrality. Following its role as host for the previous conference, TERI actively contributed India's expertise as a key member. The core technical focus areas included Synthetic Fuels (hydrogen, ammonia, and sustainable aviation fuels), Energy Storage (grid-scale and long-duration solutions), and leveraging AI and Digitalization to accelerate R&D. Beyond these, the conference emphasized Actionable Outcomes, promoting existing Task Force work (like Photovoltaics and Hydrogen Life Cycle Analysis) and furthering human resource development through the RD20 Summer School.
Dr Vibha Dhawan, Director General of TERI, chaired the session on October 2, 2025, to review the RD20 status and activities. In her presentation and address, she emphasized the urgent need for global partnerships to accelerate the energy transition and overcome key research barriers, arguing that international collaboration is critical for surmounting the human and financial constraints inherent in modern clean energy research. This urgency is amplified by the rapid doubling of knowledge and the multidisciplinary, high-cost nature of current R&D. TERI highlighted specific research challenges in Renewable Energy (e.g., affordable manufacturing, agri-photovoltaics, and critical mineral replacement) and Biofuels (e.g., embedded carbon in biomass and biogenic capture). To address these, TERI proposed the Institute of Energy Transition (IoET)—a world-class knowledge hub designed to drive India's net-zero 2070 goal through policy advocacy, strategic partnerships, research, and capacity building. Her presentation stressed that the transition must be a balanced one, ensuring energy security, resilience, affordability, and accessibility alongside the responsible shift away from fossil fuels.
TERI’ expert, Dr Sanjukta Subudhi, a co-leader in the ‘Sustainable Biofuels and Bio-chemicals’ Task Force, also presented at the conference. Dr Subudhi served as the biofuel task force lead and deliberated at the conclusion section of technical session one on October 1. At the 7th RD20 Leaders Session, she discussed future collaboration areas among RD20 institutions from G20 countries and formally proposed new initiatives centered specifically around biofuels for collaboration through Global Biofuel Alliance platform (GBA), that was launched during G20 Summit held in India.
