The year 2023 has already seen a series of extreme climate-related weather events: searing heatwaves hit India and Bangladesh, wildfires across southern Europe, Canada and in 12 US states, droughts affected more than 50 million people in the horn of Africa and many others. These climate emergencies are happening simultaneously, and the severity of the situation has prompted stark comments. UN Secretary-General António Guterres says that we are now in the “era of global boiling”.
Time is running out, and we know it. The G20, as the world’s premier forum for international economic cooperation, has a mandate to facilitate global stability by effectively responding to the interconnected challenges the world is facing. The countries making up the G20 have a shared responsibility to address the climate crisis, as they together account for 80 per cent of global emissions. No wonder then that ensuring an adequate response to the climate and energy crises has become a central focus for the G20 in recent years.
Unlike the Conference of Parties for Climate Negotiations (COP28) taking place in Dubai later this year, the G20—a grouping of the world’s major economies—covers more than climate change. What happens at the Leaders’ Summit this weekend in New Delhi will have implications for COP28, sending important political signals and setting the path for action for not just countries, but also businesses and banks. The business community and financial institutions are looking at leaders to clearly indicate their intention to push for a clean energy transition that generates jobs, promotes growth, and ensures sustainability.
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Why India’s Presidency matters
Last year, at COP27 in Egypt, India sparked an unprecedented political movement by calling on countries to agree on a global phase-down of all fossil fuels. With India leading the G20 in 2023, followed by Brazil in 2024 and South Africa in 2025, there is a unique opportunity for the Global South to propose and deliver its own vision of an equitable and just clean energy transition. One that is science-led, reflects the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities and provides the much-needed finance, technology and capacity-building to developing countries.
Indian companies are already demonstrating meaningful climate action. Two hundred and eight companies headquartered in India have set science-based targets to reduce their emissions. In 2022, eight Indian companies alone procured 2,213 GWh of renewable electricity, as reported through their commitment to the RE100 initiative. Indian electric vehicle (EV) companies are leading the charge, and the country is now one of the world’s fastest-growing EV markets. One million EVs were registered at the country level and member companies of the EV100 initiative have committed to installing 1,643 charging stations. And it is not only large businesses driving change: over 200 Indian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have committed to net zero with the SME Climate Hub. Moreover, according to research by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), India alone could create 3.4 million new jobs by deploying the 238 GW solar and 101 GW wind capacity needed to achieve the country’s 2030 target of reaching 500 GW clean electricity generation capacity.
But businesses cannot do this alone. An equitable clean energy transition will only succeed at the pace and scale required if governments and financial institutions create the right enabling conditions.
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Path for action
At the G20 Summit, world leaders have an opportunity to cooperate on crucial steps to enable businesses large and small to deliver an accelerated transition. The energy, development and climate ministerial meetings have already delivered some positive developments, such as creating a disaster risk reduction working group, adopting high-level principles on lifestyles for sustainable development, and bringing much-needed attention to resilient critical mineral supply chains. India’s Presidency also saw the release of the Larry Summers-NK Singh report on the reform of multilateral development banks to increase their scope of lending.
Now, G20 leaders can set a clear path to accelerate the clean energy transition. They can commit to doubling the rate of improvement of energy efficiency and tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030. This would give clarity to companies on the direction of travel and confidence to align business investments and activities toward a clean energy transition away from fossil fuels. Major Indian businesses recently made the importance of this clear in an open letter to the G20.
With the uptake of renewable energy increasing the demand for critical minerals, it is also essential that G20 leaders ensure their equitable, steady and affordable supply. This can be done by diversifying supply chains of critical minerals, which are highly concentrated geographically, promoting circularity to reduce demand, and facilitating co-development of technologies. This transition will require upskilling workforces, especially in the Global South, for the green jobs of the future.
Finance will play a key role in enabling a just clean energy transition. With public financial support for fossil fuels reaching record levels in the G20 in 2022, repurposing these funds towards energy efficiency, renewable energy, electrification and other people-centred measures is a crucial step towards creating a level-playing field for renewables in G20 economies and supporting greater corporate uptake. More broadly, by supporting global financial architecture reform and creating a clear path for what needs to be agreed upon at COP28 in Dubai in December, G20 leaders can ensure clean energy investments are de-risked for business, and facilitate greater access to low-cost financing of clean energy in developing countries.
Strong leadership on these issues from the G20 at its September Summit can lay the ground for decisive progress in the upcoming international summits. G20 Leaders can respond to the calls of young people around the world, ushering in the change that our world desperately needs to move away from unabated fossil fuels and secure a fast, well-managed and just clean energy transition. The era of global boiling is bad for business, bad for social and political stability, and a disaster for humanity and nature alike. By leading the charge on the clean energy transition, G20 leaders can boost their economies and accelerate the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. India’s Presidency has already set the ball rolling, now action must follow.
María Mendiluce is CEO, We Mean Business Coalition. She tweets @mendiluce. Arunabha Ghosh is CEO, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). He serves on the Government of India’s G20 Finance Track Advisory Group and provides guidance to the Sherpa Track for India’s G20 presidency. He tweets @GhoshArunabha. Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)