• Thursday, March 28, 2024

Business

Mahindra, Dalmia Cement join platform to fight climate change

The launching session of the First Movers Coalition at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, on Thursday, November 4, 2021. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

By: Shubham Ghosh

INDIAN companies like the Mahindra Group and Dalmia Cement (Bharat) besides global giants like Amazon and Apple have joined as founding members of the ‘First Movers Coalition’ to work towards driving demand for zero-carbon technologies, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has said.

The coalition was launched at the COP26 climate summit which is currently underway in Glasgow, Scotland.

To jump-start the effort, the WEF, in partnership with US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, has announced the First Movers Coalition – a new platform for companies to make purchasing commitments that create a new-market demand for low-carbon technologies.

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Roughly half of the emission reductions that are required to achieve the 2050 climate goals rely on technologies in early development, demonstration or prototype phases, while accelerating innovation at the same time, Press Trust of India reported.

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The commitments aim to be collectively important enough to commercialise technologies of de-carbonisation. The coalition will also create a long-term impact by driving milestones this decade by means of investment into such technological solutions.

The coalition will work across eight key sectors, the seven of which – steel, cement, chemicals, aluminium, aviation, shipping and trucking – account for more than a third of the world’s carbon emissions but do not have cost-competitive clean energy alternatives to fossil fuels. The eighth is direct air capture and it could reduce atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels to help achieve net-zero global emissions but also needs technological innovation to reach commercial viability, the WEF said.

The founding members of the Coalition include Agility, Airbus, Amazon, Apple, Bain & Company, Bank of America, Boston Consulting Group, Boeing, Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited, Delta Air Lines, Mahindra Group, Nokia, ReNew Power, Salesforce, United Airlines, Volvo Group and Yara International.

“Technology has given us the tools to reduce our emissions and build a stronger and more inclusive economy of the future. For innovators and investors to play their part in tackling the climate crisis, they need clear market demand. The First Movers Coalition will leverage the collective purchasing power of leading companies and drive the need for these technologies. I call on business leaders to work with us and be the role models keeping our climate goals alive,” WEF president Borge Brende said.

Kerry said the First Movers Coalition is a platform for the world’s leading global companies to make purchasing commitments to create early markets for critical technologies needed to achieve net-zero by the year 2050.

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