T20 Working Groups recommend setting up of a Climate Technologies’ Clearing House and linking SME Financing to ESG
Aspire Impact, a leading ESG, Sustainability and Impact Assessment initiative in India, took a significant stride in tackling environmental challenges during a recent Global Consultation today, alongside Aspire Circle and TERI, its co-hosts. The global consultation titled “Catalysing inclusive Climate Innovations for the Global Impact Economy”, witnessed massive participation from experts representing corporates, SMEs, banks, investors, policy makers, politics, think tanks, and climate organizations. The focus of the event was to seek feedback on two ground-breaking research publications from two Working Groups set up ahead of the meeting on “Unlocking Climate Technologies for Global South” and “Catalyzing Climate and ESG-led Finance for SMEs and Supply Chains”.
The two working groups, each with 25-strong group of experts, including Chief Sustainability Officers, ESG & Impact Leaders, and SME Platforms, collaborated for two months to jointly publish these research publications. Aspire Impact and Aspire Circle partnered with TERI, Mahindra University, m1Xchange, Desai & Associates, Capgemini, Protean e-gov, and The Rockefeller Foundation to present these publications.
The first Working Group, “Catalysing Climate and ESG-led Finance for SMEs and Supply Chains” outlines a visionary idea to establish a correlation between Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors, sustainability practices, and their impact on cost-efficient climate finance for SMEs and Supply chains. This can be achieved by leveraging Open Digital Eco-Systems (ODEs) to facilitate the discovery of climate finance opportunities and enhance the capacity of SMEs and supply chains, ultimately leading to their integration into an impactful movement and accelerating the transition towards achieving Net Zero emissions. An ODE with a clear purpose has the potential to catalyse the adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and make SMEs future-ready.
The second Working Group, “Unlocking Climate Technologies for Global South” envisions the establishment of a Climate Technologies’ Clearing House (CTCH). This innovative hub will serve as a Trade Hub, facilitating the transfer of climate technologies to governments and corporations in Global South nations. It addresses their need for financial assistance, smooth and transparent buyer-supplier discovery, and capacity-building to meet their commitments under the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement.
Speaking about the impact of the event, Amit Bhatia, Founder & CEO of Aspire Impact and Aspire Circle, said, “The Global Consultation with over 200 practitioners for our two research publications, co-authored by 50 experts, has been a remarkable T20 achievement. The recommendations of (i) a dedicated private initiative to build a facility for climate technology transfer from Global North to Global South, and (ii) Linking supply-chain financing to Climate action and ESG ratings are both a first for G20, as is the participation from Chief Sustainability Officers, ESG & Impact Leaders, and SME Platforms. These two recommendations help global SMEs and Big Business alike, while accelerating our planet’s transition to Net Zero.”
The two working groups included CXOs and leaders from around the world.
“Catalyzing Climate and ESG-led Finance for SMEs and Supply Chains” was co-authored by Abhishake Kumar Karn, Head, PSL Wholesale & MSME – RBL Bank; Dr. Adriana Kocornik-Mina, Senior Manager of Metrics and Research – Global Alliance for Banking on Values; Amit Bhatia, Founder & CEO – Aspire Circle & Aspire Impact; Anna Bruni Sabhaney, Founder – The Confluencers; Aparna Soni Bhalla, Relationship Manager, Trade & Supply Chain Finance – Asian Development Bank; Bhavya Sharma, Director, Communications & ESG – Urban Company; Debaroti Sarkar, Assistant Director, Knowledge Development – Aspire Impact; Fernando Cortes McAllister, Executive Director – Fundación Bolivar Davivienda; Harpreet Kaur Ghai, Director, Knowledge Development – Aspire Impact; Jamuna Rao Verghese, Managing Partner – Dancing Rain Capital; Jinesh Shah, Managing Partner – Omnivore; Kartikeya Nitin Desai, Founder & CEO – Desai & Associates; K.S. Priyadarshini, Sustainable Finance Lead – HSBC Commercial Banking India; Manish Kumar, Head-ESG & CSR – ICICI Bank Limited; Dr. Manish Kumar Shrivastava, Senior Fellow – TERI; Manjari Atroley, Co-Founder and Director – 2nd October Inc.; Meeta Narsinghani, Associate Partner – Circulate Capital; Rekha Krishnan, Managing Partner – WEFT Research LLP and Strategic Advisor – CLEAN; Rohit Bhatia, Chief Product Officer – Aspire Impact; Saneesh Singh, Independent Director and Former MD & CEO – Día Vikas Capital; Sangeeta Robinson, CSO – PVR Cinemas; Sundeep Mohindru, Founder Director – M1xchange; Suresh Sethi, Managing Director & CEO – Protean e-Gov Technologies Ltd.
“Unlocking Climate Technologies for Global South” was co-authored by Alok Jagdhari, Managing Partner – 92 Angels; Alka Talwar, Ex-Chief CSR & Sustainability Officer – Tata Chemical Limited; Founder & CEO – Aspire Circle & Aspire Impact; Dr. Amrita Goldar Senior Fellow and Thematic Lead – Climate Change Urbanization and Sustainability, ICRIER; Anirban Ghosh, Head, Centre for Sustainability – Mahindra University and Former Group CSO – Mahindra Group; Anurag Pratap, Vice President & CSR Leader – Capgemini; Ashish Mehta, Founder & Managing Partner – Second Nature Sustainable Solutions; Corey Glickman, VP, Global Head Sustainability and Design Consulting Services – Infosys; Girish Sethi, Senior Director, Energy Program -TERI, New Delhi; Harpreet Kaur Ghai, Director, Knowledge Development – Aspire Impact; Kartikeya Nitin Desai, Founder & CEO – Desai & Associates; Kavita Jadeja, Sustainability Professional; Kiran Sarkar, Head Sustainability (Automation & Farm Equipment Sector) – Mahindra & Mahindra Limited; Masood Mallick, CEO – Re Sustainability Limited; Rahul Singh Tomar, Associate, Chief of Staff to the CEO – Ather Energy; Rajeev Kumar, Vice President, Business Development and Integration – bp India; Rohit Bhatia, Chief Product Officer – Aspire Impact; Ruhana Zariwala, Global Head – Sustainability – Cipla Ltd; Sabina Curatolo, Impact Consultant; Dr. Sunita Purushottam, Board Chairman Global Building performanceNetwork and Head sustainability and CSR – Mahindra Lifespaces Developer Ltd.; Suruchi Bhadwal, Senior Fellow and Program Director, Climate and Air – TERI; Swapnil Joshi, Director, Sustainability & Design – Infosys Ltd.; Tanya Singhal, Founder – Mynzo Carbon (MyNetZero); Zarmeen Pavri, Co-Founder and Partner – SDGx
About Aspire Impact:
Aspire Impact is the pioneering Impact Rating & Certification initiative in the Global South. Established in 2020 as a social enterprise, it uses a 4P Impact Assessment Framework to evaluate corporations, banks, funds, and non-profits in terms of ESG, Sustainability, and Impact. Through rigorous evaluations based on 40
Impact Standards and 150+ KPIs, Aspire Impact awards Green, Silver, Gold & Platinum Leaf ratings. It also leads India’s esteemed thought leadership project, the Impact Future Project, featuring 11 research reports to date with contributions from over 250 CXOs as co-authors.
