Notwithstanding a global pandemic, a group of business leaders, policy experts, officials from the environment, climate change, sustainability, and energy space met virtually to inspire Indians and the Indian diaspora to action with regard to climate mitigation and climate risk, which participants agreed was an "existential challenge" that the world will have to face in the near future if nothing was done.  

The virtual summit, on April 20, centering around the theme "How do you prosper in a net-zero economy?" saw participants from various geographies deliver keynote addresses, engage in talks, panel discussions, fireside chats and intimate breakout sessions. 

Organized by the non-profit organization Indiaspora - a network of global Indian-origin leaders from diverse backgrounds and professions – the event assumed an added significance, coming only two days before US President Joe Biden’s climate summit and Earth Day. 

Leaders of 40 countries, nearly half of them from the developing world, are scheduled to brainstorm at Biden’s summit, on issues like climate finance, carbon neutrality, and on yet to be fulfilled national commitments at previous international environmental forums. 

Parallel to Biden’s summit, over a billion people worldwide would engage themselves in various events to show support for environmental protection on Earth Day, April 22. 

 Setting the tone of the Indiaspora Climate Summit, the organization's founder, San Francisco-based software entrepreneur and philanthropist MR Rangaswami said the Indian diaspora can be a catalyst and collaborator on climate issues facing India and the globe. 

“Climate mitigation and climate risk is also an existential threat to India and the world. And in the case of both Covid 19 and climate change, what it goes on to show is that we all got to work together. This is where we hope the Indian diaspora can be a catalyst and the convenor, inspire people,’ said Rangaswami, also an investor and corporate eco-strategy expert.

 In his keynote address, former UN Assistant Secretary-General and Head of New York Office, UN Environment, Satya Tripathi, said the power of the Indian diaspora has been mostly underemphasized.

 “And it is time we leverage our strengths and showcase the best of us across the planet in support of people and planet. In that conversation, India holds center-stage,” said Tripathi, now secretary-general at the Global Alliance for a Sustainable Planet.

He said while India’s per capita emission was about 1.9 tonnes, as opposed to the ideal average of 2.1 tonnes per capita, the trouble lies in that “we are doubling roughly in nine to ten years, as has been evidenced in the last decade.

“So with that, we will easily surpass any of the largest emitters, the two ahead of us, that is China and the United States in a few decades, if not earlier,” he said.

 Describing  'net zero' as an opportunity, rather than a challenge, Tripathi said India could be at the front of the line by producing hundreds of billions of dollars of offsets by both saving its people, its public health, its eco-systems.

“Thus we can become a resurgent country, while of course serving the rest of the world with the offsets,” he said.

Robert Charles Swan, the first person to walk both poles and UN Goodwill Ambassador for Youth,  said India needs to think about the Himalayas, which were melting. Swan, who has also bicycled around India to bring awareness about climate change, said “I feel in 20 years India could play a very positive role in preservation of Antarctica.”

Rohini Nilekani, philanthropist and founder chairperson of the NGO Arghaym, called for nature-based solutions, conservation-based livelihoods “that involve wide grassroots participation in creating positive change”.

Kamaljit S. Bawa, founder-president of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Jane Burston, Executive Director of Clean Air Fund, Arjun Divecha, Founder-Director, The Divecha Centre for Climate Change at the Bengaluru-based  Indian Institute of Science, were among those who took part in the summit.

Hisham Mundol, Chief Advisor, India, Environmental Defense Fund, Shloka Nath, Acting Director, India Climate Collaborative, Anita Nagpal Schwartz, India Development Director, Nature Conservancy and Deepika Rawat, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Hamburg, and explorer with 2041 Foundation, also participated in The India Perspective Session.

The curtain came down with a performance by Grammy award-winning musician-composer Ricky Kej, also an environmental champion.