Big Opportunity For India To Boost Clean Tech Manufacturing, After US Climate Withdrawal: Amitabh Kant

Last Updated:February 27, 2025, 09:33 IST

India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant also described Delhi’s air pollution as a “failure of governance” and strongly pushed for transition to EVs, and increased use of public transport.

Amitabh Kant spoke to CNN-News18 on the sidelines of 2025’s Anil Aggarwal Dialogue (AED) organised by Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). (Image: News18)

There is a massive opportunity for India to boost clean technology manufacturing in wake of the US withdrawal from global climate action efforts, and ongoing breakdown of global supply chains, said India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant on Wednesday.

“Last time when the US withdrew from the Paris Agreement, China capitalised on it, and now controls the critical minerals, EVs and battery supply chains. With the US backing out again, India has huge opportunity to fill the vacuum, because we manufacture two-wheelers, four wheelers and electric products,” said Kant speaking to CNN-News18 on the sidelines of 2025’s Anil Aggarwal Dialogue (AED) organised by Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

The top bureaucrat who also helmed the NITI Aayog until 2022 urged industries to target the global market in view of the disruption of the global supply chains and simultaneously ramp up battery manufacturing to reduce reliance on Chinese imports.

Speaking on climate action, CSE Director-General Sunita Narain voiced her disappointment with the US withdrawal from the crucial UN climate treaty despite being the world’s biggest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, suggesting that it could lead to a further spike in the US emissions, even though they were expected to have peaked in 2025.

Regarding India’s state of environment, she said, “The good news is that 2025 Delhi assembly elections told us that clean air, clean Yamuna and garbage on the streets were issues that voters were concerned about. On the bad news, we are saddled with programmes that are not ambitious enough, institutions that are weak, and a way of environmental management that is expensive and non-inclusive.”

DELHI’S AIR POLLUTION A GOVERNANCE FAILURE

Responding to increasing concerns over the dangerous air pollution levels in the national capital each year, the former NITI Aayog CEO said it was a “dismal failure of governance.”

“We keep blaming biomass burning outside Delhi, in Punjab and Haryana, but it is also happening within the city and its surrounding areas. Firewood is still being burned, which should be replaced with LPG. Firm action needs to be taken against industries, brick kilns. Only a few of the power plants have installed the flue gas desulphurisation (FGDs) technologies, the deadline for implementation keeps getting extended,” he said.

Former deputy chairperson of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia who was also present at the event also emphasised that with industries there should be no compromise on pollution and wastewater. “The polluter must pay, whether large or small,” he added.

SWITCH TO EVs, TAKE PETROL/DIESEL VEHICLES OFF ROAD

With the rapidly increasing number of vehicles emerging as the biggest polluter for Delhi’s toxic smog, Kant said there is an urgent need to shift to Electric Vehicles (EVs), and suggested that all petrol/diesel vehicles should be taken off the roads in India’s most polluted cities at least.

“Delhi must fully transition to electric vehicles. We need to have all-electric vehicles, with people travelling by buses, instead of cars. All vehicles should shift to electric. In all the 42 Indian cities, which are among the world’s 50 most polluted cities, petrol and diesel vehicles must be taken off the roads. This requires strict, firm action, and tough governance, and multi-track action,” he added.

An overwhelming 1.1 million vehicles ply in and out of Delhi every day, which already has one of the highest numbers of registered vehicles among cities – 79 lakh as recorded in 2023-24. A recent analysis done by the CSE also showed that if external sources are excluded, then the transport sector contributes over 50 per cent of the national capital’s PM2.5 concentrations among all local sources.

The top bureaucrat blamed the collapse of the municipal governance for the deteriorating air pollution crisis in the country. “As many as 42 Indian cities are among the 50 most polluted cities in the world. This is a total failure of municipal governance. We have not even achieved proper segregation of waste at the household level. There is no municipal governance in India today. We need to fix that,” he added.

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