India and UK to establish Net Zero Innovation Centre

India and the UK will establish the India-UK ‘Net Zero’ Innovation Virtual Centre.

The Net Zero Innovation Centre will facilitate collaboration between stakeholders from both countries on aspects like decarbonizing manufacturing processes and transportation systems and green hydrogen as a renewable energy source.

The announcement to set up Net Zero Innovation Virtual Centre was made during the India-UK Science & Innovation Council meeting in the last week of April 2023. The center will facilitate increased science and technology collaboration between the countries.

The collaboration is part of a more comprehensive and ambitious ‘Roadmap 2030’ between India and the UK, which includes sectors like health, climate, trade, education, science and technology, and defense. As per the statements made on the occasion, India’s minister of Science & Technology, Jitendra Singh, highlighted that the India-UK Science & Technology collaboration “has been growing at a rapid pace, and the joint research program has gone from an almost zero base to close to £300-400 million now”.

The G20 countries, including India and the UK, contribute about 75 to 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and only these two countries are working on the climate goals.

UK Progress on Climate

In 2019, the UK committed to a net zero target and two years later released its Net Zero Strategy, which envisages how the country intends to achieve its climate targets by 2050.

As of 2022, the data from the Climate Action Tracker shows that of the G20 countries, only the UK has put in place climate action targets and policies that could help the world achieve the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Indian Progress on Climate 

On the other hand, India, incidentally, announced its goal to become a ‘Net-Zero’ country by 2070 at a CoP 26 event held in Scotland, United Kingdom. Since then, there have been a series of steps taken by the Indian government to reduce carbon emissions and achieve the ambitious net-zero targets. India is steadfast towards climate goals, with several budget announcements made in 2023.

In a report by ORF in February 2023, India ranks first among all G20 members regarding overall climate performance. 

Wrapping UP

So looking at this premise, it is interesting India and UK have decided to establish the Net Zero Innovation Centre. While all countries have to take their pledges seriously, India and the UK are comparatively faring better than the rest.