NEW DELHI — India is among the world’s 13 leading industrial clusters along
with countries such as Australia, Brazil, the Netherlands, the UK and Saudi
Arabia to join the World Economic Forum’s Transitioning Industrial Clusters
initiative to fight climate change and safeguard the planet, according to a WEF
statement issued on Sunday.
A new white paper has been released to highlight the
critical role that industrial clusters play in advancing the deployment of
clean-energy infrastructure at scale. It features leading players deploying
innovative collaboration and business models while harnessing the power of
digital technologies.
The Accelerating the Energy Transition: Unpacking the
Business and Economic Cases report articulated the difficulty of translating
the well-established benefits of climate action into private investment, the
statement said.
“The Global South is paying the price for other areas of the
world causing climate change,” said Cindy H. McCain, Executive Director, United
Nations World Food Programme. “The people that can least afford it, that have
the least ability to fight it, are the ones being affected the most.”
With climate change-related extreme weather events and risks
increasingly evident, world leaders participating in WEF 2025, which concluded
this week, called for the need for swifter, wider and deeper action. The
meeting built on the momentum from the three UN COPs on Climate, Land and
Biodiversity in 2024 to scale the deployment of renewable energy, drive energy
efficiencies while addressing energy demand, and protect and restore nature.
The WEF also released its first State of Nature and Climate
report, presenting the latest data on planetary health and global corporate
progress in addressing climate and nature challenges.
The Forum published six reports aimed at accelerating the
global shift toward a nature-positive future. Five focused on sector-specific
strategies for critical industries -- offshore wind, mining and metals, ports,
and automotive -- while the sixth examined financing solutions for building
nature-positive cities.
The Forum’s inaugural Giving to Amplify Earth Action (GAEA)
Awards honoured five groundbreaking initiatives that are advancing solutions to
the world’s most pressing climate and nature challenges. The five awarded
collaborations will receive tailored support throughout 2025 to advance and
scale impact and drive systems-wide change, the statement said.
It further stated leading companies across retail,
e-commerce, mobility and logistics announced new commitments and a shared
ambition for more sustainable and efficient urban deliveries while working with
the government to embrace new solutions and models that benefit consumers,
couriers, companies and cities.
