Eight Indians and Indian-origin persons, including World Bank President Ajay Banga and co-founder of Ola Electric Bhavish Aggarwal, have been featured in Time magazine's first-ever list of the world's most influential leaders driving business to real climate action.
'Time 100 Climate' list, which includes CEOs, founders, philanthropists, musicians, policymakers and government officials from across the world, comes ahead of the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference scheduled to take place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from November 30.
Along with Banga and Aggarwal, Rajiv J Shah, president of The Rockefeller Foundation; Geeta Aiyer, founder and president of Boston Common Asset Management, Jigar Shah, director of the US Department of Energy Loan Programmes Office; Manoj Sinha, CEO and co-founder of Husk Power Systems; Seema Wadhwa, executive director for environmental stewardship for Kaiser Permanente and Amit Kumar Sinha, managing director and CEO of Mahindra Lifespaces, are also on the list.
Banga, 64, who began his five-year term as World Bank Group president in June, is ushering in a new mission for the institution: eradicating poverty while fighting climate change, according to Time.
"If you can't breathe and you can't drink clean water, there's very little point in eradicating poverty," he said at the 2023 World Bank Group-IMF Annual Meetings in Morocco.
India is the world's most populous country, and it is likely to be the most vital to transition to sustainable transportation. Some 70 per cent of the vehicles on India's roads are mopeds and scooters, and Aggarwal, 38, is leading the path to electrifying them, the magazine said. This year, Ola launched its most affordable electric scooter ever, priced at INR 79,999 (about USD 960).
Rajiv Shah's The Rockefeller Foundation works to ensure that all initiatives and investment strategies are focused through a climate lens. This year, the Rockefeller Foundation partnered with the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet to launch the Coal to Clean Credit Initiative. The aim is to develop a new carbon finance standard to spur a just transition away from coal-fired power plants to renewable energy in emerging economies, the magazine said.
"Wealthy countries not only need to fulfil the climate commitments they made to lower-income countries but also go beyond those commitments. In 2009, high-income countries pledged to deliver USD 100 billion per year by 2020 to developing countries for mitigation and adaptation measures. They fell USD 16.7 billion short of that pledge in 2020 alone," Rajiv Shah, 50, said.
Aiyer's Boston Common Asset Management is a woman-led, employee-owned sustainable investment firm with nearly USD 5 billion in assets under management. The firm prioritises investment in climate change mitigation and uses shareholder engagement to push portfolio companies toward more sustainable business practices.
"I hope the efforts to address and reverse biodiversity loss and invest in earth renewal gain traction. Ecosystems across the world are on the brink of collapse and millions of plant and animal species are at risk, including humans," she said.
Mahindra Lifespaces, the real estate and infrastructure development arm of Indian conglomerate company Mahindra Group. Incomes are projected to rise, and India could see 400 million new urban dwellers by 2050, a shift that will require massive growth in new building stock. This will increase pressure to develop sustainably-a challenge Amit Kumar Sinha is rising to meet. Since 2013, Mahindra Lifespaces says it has had an entirely green portfolio, prioritizing water efficiency, passive energy design, renewables, and more, Time said.
