The world needs technology to fight climate change, says top bureaucrat Leena Nandan

The recently released report by the WMO Provisional State of the Global Climate in 2022 states that the past eight years (2015 to 2022) are on track to be the eight warmest on record, fuelled by ever-rising greenhouse gas concentrations and accumulated heat. And this climate change is causing significant losses via events such as floods, droughts and more, affecting millions of lives and billions in dollars to countries. “What India and the world need today to fight climate change is technology,” said Leena Nandan, Secretary - Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

While speaking at a Panel Discussion on “Technology Needs Assessment for Sustainable Life” at the India Pavilion at COP 27 Egypt, hosted by the Department of Science and Technology, Nandan added “Climate change is not an issue confined to those who are seen as emitters. There is now a realization and larger and uniform understanding that Climate change cannot be wished away. It is knocking at our door. We need to add our bits in the larger picture only then, as a country, we could say that we have taken decisive steps to tackle climate change.”

Nandan highlighted that discussions need to now focus on bridging the gaps between what we want to achieve and how to achieve it. Science is there but how to apply this science and knowledge to our activities needs to be processed. Speaking in the context of technologies in road construction she said “that one size fits all cannot apply to India due to India’s huge diversity. Technology needs assessment is different for different states. Terrain diversity forces states to find their respective solutions. The Secretary also spoke about circular economy. "Reduce, reuse, recycle, restore and refurbish. All R’s need the T that is technology," she pointed out.

As the big players have access to finance to access climate change technology, this alone will not resolve the big challenge ahead of the world. Explaining the actions that can be taken, Nandan said, “There is a need to work through silos. Technology cannot remain confined to big players due to their access to finance. MSMEs and start-ups need to be enabled to access finance to use technology optimally.”

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