High Level Convening of Industry Charter for Near Zero Emissions by 2050

At the 23rd edition of TERI’s World Sustainable Development Summit, signatories to the Industry Charter for Near Zero Emissions by 2050 convened for a roundtable discussion on decarbonisation of heavy industries. The Industry Charter for Near Zero Emissions by 2050 brings together a group of companies voluntarily committing to lower their emissions. The charter provides a platform for the signatory companies to discuss their work and progress on decarbonisation.

The convening chaired by Mr. R R Rashmi, Distinguished Fellow, TERI, saw the participation of the founding signatory CEO, Mr. Mahendra Singhi, Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd, Mr. Dipak Dasgupta, Distinguished Fellow, TERI, representatives from DISCOMs, technology providers and sectoral associations.

At the convening, diverse perspectives emerged from the industry leaders, policy and philanthropy landscape, sectoral associations and the financial sector on how to accelerate energy, mobility and industrial transitions. While panelists suggested the need to develop a business case for sustainability practices, perspectives also emerged on how such sustainability practices can be embodied and the resources needed to implement them. From the convening, opinions emerged on the need to undertake financial sector transformation to help finance the needs of the industrial growth plans.

Low-hanging fruits like energy efficiency and deployment of best available technologies were some key measures suggested to reduce energy use. Panellists also highlighted the need for businesses to undertake systems transformation, digitize targets to enable real-time monitoring, and integrate a lifecycle approach to products and processes and focus on improvement of upstream technologies.