Former US Secretary of Commerce and head of the Bryson Climate Initiative John Bryson said the onus of adopting technologies to prevent climate change lies with industry and urged them to cooperate with various research institutions working on it.
Bryson was in the city as part of a panel discussion organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Rockefeller Institute on Monday.
Bryson said, “It is very hard to push for something as profound as climate change when people are more interested in immediate action. Even though much of the funding in these areas comes from the government, it is the entrepreneurs who can make a difference.”
He added that his initiative would focus on emerging climate change technologies in India, China and Taiwan.
“There will be 1.4 billion people in India by 2050. This will include a lot of brilliant researchers. We need to bring public service and businesses together to have an impact,” he said.
Chairman of the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), Bangalore Chapter, Syed Mohammed Beary, said the IGBC had a target of ensuring that 50 per cent of India’s buildings were environmentally friendly by 2025.
“We today have 2,204 buildings with an area of 1.65 billion sq feet already certified. We are aiming for one lakh buildings and 20 billion sq ft by 2025,” he said.
The panel included Padu S Padmanaban of the CII Green Business Centre and K Krishnan, chairman, CII Task Force on Bio Energy.