The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
BHUBANESWAR, JULY 29, 2021
Lauding Odisha’s approach towards disaster management, British Deputy High Commissioner to Kolkata, Nick Low said that Odisha’s achievement in climate change adaptation has been immense.
“As we’ve seen from its disaster response to Cyclone Amphan and Yaas, Odisha’s achievement in climate change adaptation has been immense. I was delighted speaking to the decision-makers and influencers who are in the front line of mitigating climate change in Odisha. There is so much that we can and should do at the local and regional level to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through adopting clean, green energy and transport solutions,” said Low while speaking at a virtual webinar “United Kingdom-Odisha Dialogue on COP26 and Clean Energy and Clean Transport Transition”, organised by the British Deputy High Commission, Kolkata and the Odisha Government with support from Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) today.
“It’s a journey that my own country has made, reducing the proportion of electricity produced by burning coal from 40% in 2014 to 2% today,” he added.
Low further said that the United Kingdom is ready to trade with the Odisha Government and support them in their clean energy transition journey in every possible way.
The high-level conference provided an opportunity to have focused discussions on strategic and innovative interventions to accelerate transition to zero emission vehicles and the adoption of cleaner energy as Odisha progresses its portfolio of sustainable development policies and pathways.
The programme also focused on discussions on innovative policies and technologies that can be adopted by the State Government and City Administrations who can sign up to Route Zero Initiative and enhance ambition on electric mobility.
Speaking on the occasion, Odisha’s Development Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Jena said, “It is excellent to see that we have come together today, exactly three months before COP 26 to deliberate on ways to deal with the climate crisis and discuss key strategies to up our game on climate action.”
“Accelerated transition to clean energy and clean transport is a top priority for the Odisha government to mitigate impacts of climate change and to adopt a sustainable roadmap towards green recovery. We are indeed pleased to partner with the UK Government to exchange knowledge and best practices to drive up climate ambition,” said Odisha State Science & Technology Secretary Manoj Mishra.
As part of the COP26 ZEVs campaign, the UK is bringing together governments from the largest and most progressive automotive markets globally through the ZEVs Transition Council, which will coordinate efforts, enabling the transition to be quicker, cheaper, and easier for all of society. The UK is also engaging with businesses and other stakeholders to help overcome shared barriers. The experts at the event urged businesses to commit to the uptake of electric vehicles into the corporate fleet and join the EV100 initiative.
The world needs greater ambition from companies and investors. The programme encouraged them to join the Race to Zero. This requires businesses to take robust short-term action to halve global emissions by 2030, and to achieve net zero emissions as soon as possible, and by 2050 at the very latest.
Eminent speakers from the public and private sectors joined from the United Kingdom and other parts of India and Odisha to share their experience, technical knowhow and lessons learnt.
The event highlighted specific commitments from businesses in line with the COP26 campaigns (clean transport, nature solutions, adaptation and resilience, energy transition and finance). Businesses can support these initiatives as a means of achieving their net zero and short term commitments, or as a first step towards ambitious climate action.
