B20 Zeroes In on Net Zero and Advocates Sustainable Global Business

The B20 Business Summit took place within the context of the Indian Presidency of G20 in New Delhi from 25 to 27 August 2023. The event was organized by the #B20 India Secretariat and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and aims to foster dialogue between the business leaders and policy makers from G20 and beyond.

This year, the theme was RAISE or Responsible, Accelerated, Innovative, Sustainable and Equitable businesses. The declared objective is “To RAISE the bar” while promoting global business along these attributes.

In his keynote address, Indian PM Narendra Modi warned that viewing countries merely as a market is unsustainable and is not a good business in the long run. He went on to propose an International Consumer Day whereby global businesses will come together annually to renew the pledge to do good for consumers and to promote the sustainability of the markets.

“Treating other countries only as a market will not work and even harm producing countries sooner or later. Everyone should be equal partners and share in the wealth and progress”.

Indian PM Narendra Modi

Several sessions were organized in different cities across India, each with a particular focus. Thus, Mumbai organized a Green Conclave, Pune welcomed a session on GreenCo, Hyderabad discussed Green Cementech, Bengaluru also focused on GreenPro and Goa held an International Environment and Sustainability Summit.

As discussions unfolded and given the urgency of #ClimateChange, Green and Sustainable Businesses emerged as one of the key pressing issues of #B20 and is likely to be at the top of the agenda at the upcoming #G20 Summit.

Modi also proposed the creation of a B20 Global Institute in India to promote sustainable global business practices which will combine the functions of a business exchange platform and think tank. To that effect, a library of business case studies highlighting the green and #ESG dimensions would be constituted.

Last but not least, India fully backs #GreenFinance and firmly believes that the #CarbonCredit market could be a powerful lever to unlock financing to advance the transition to #NetZero.