Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

Climate Tech Start-ups Attracted Over $2.1 Billion Investment: Piyush Goyal

The union commerce minister called upon climate warriors to adopt climateprenurship as a mission and the need to decouple growth from carbon emissions
March 8, 2022
Climate Tech Start-ups
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The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal on Monday said that since 2014, India had seen an investment of $2.1 billion flowing into the climate technology start-ups in India.

The union minister was addressing Only One Earth – a Discussion on Environment, a special interactive session on environment organised by the India Pavilion and Bhamla Foundation at Expo 2020 Dubai.

Piyush Goyal called upon the climate warriors to adopt ‘climateprenurship’ as a mission, encouraging them to ensure that 21st-century inventions ushered in a new dawn of climate justice. He asked for growth to be decoupled from carbon emissions with greater industry participation and investment in technology for renewable energy, hydrogen and electric vehicles. He said that change must start at home, asking Indian households to shift to sustainable, organic, natural products in daily life.

Listing the milestones achieved in the field of renewable energy, the union minister said that India’s installed non-fossil energy capacity – fourth largest in the world – had increased by almost 300 percent in the last 7.5 years and stood at more than 150 GW today. He added that India had one of the world’s lowest solar tariffs at ₹2.14 kW/h.

Piyush Goyal asserted that India aspired to be a leading hydrogen economy of the world and added that under National Hydrogen Mission, India aimed to reduce the cost of hydrogen to half, from ₹350/kg to ₹160/kg by 2030. Terming hydrogen as ‘Fuel of the future,’ he expressed hope that vehicles would soon run on hydrogen.

The minister said that “World is witnessing depletion of all types of natural resources. In such a scenario, a circular economy is the demand of the hour.” He added that in pursuit of the mantras of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, India had taken numerous initiatives for a circular economy. India now processes 70% of its waste under Swachh Bharat 2.0 (Urban), he said.