Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani Mukesh Ambani on Wednesday pointed to climate change as the biggest threat to mankind and called for a green industrial revolution.

“Transition to clean energy is not an option anymore, it’s a compulsion,” the billionaire told Raghunath Mashelkar, president of Pune International Centre (PIC) at Asia Economic Dialogue (AED).

“There is no Planet B, we only have one planet,” Ambani said, adding that the earth is facing an existential crisis due to climate change.

Ambani said that the first three industrial revolutions disrupted the harmony between humans and nature but a transition to green energy will be a disruption of the reverse kind that will lead to an earth-friendly industrial revolution.

He is of the view that energy transition will also determine the geopolitical transition in the 21st century.

“When wood was replaced with coal, Europe overtook India and China to emerge the world leader. Similarly, with the emergence of oil, the US and west Asia outgrew others. When India becomes not only self-sufficient in green and clean energy, but also a large exporter, it will help India emerge as a global power. India will demonstrate that prosperity for all people and prosperity for our planet are not mutually contradictory goals,” he explained.

Ambani added that the transition will have other benefits like the generation of a huge number of green jobs and massive foreign exchange savings since energy and electronics are India's biggest imports at the present.

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Reliance Chairman’s remarks are in line with India’s commitment to reach net-zero emission by 2070 to tackle climate change.

Addressing the COP26 Summit in Glasgow last, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, India will increase its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 giga watt by 2030 and fulfill 50 percent of its energy requirements from renewable energy sources by 2030. Between now and 2030, India will reduce its total projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes, he added.

Earlier in January, Reliance Industries has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Gujarat state government for a total investment of Rs 5.955 trillion over the next 10-15 years as part of Investment Promotion Activity for Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2022.

RIL said it plans to invest Rs 5 trillion to set up 100 GW renewable energy power plant and green hydrogen ecosystem development to help Gujarat become net zero and carbon-free.

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(Edited by : Kanishka Sarkar)

First Published:Feb 23, 2022 1:59 PM IST