MSMEs require least investment to go green; top priority for BEE

Small and medium businesses are the top priority for Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) as they require least investment for transition to cleaner forms of energy, a senior official said on Monday.

Addressing a conference on the occasion of the World MSME Day, BEE Director General Abhay Bakre lauded MSMEs for being responsive, flexible, highly skilled, and requiring the least investment to transition to green energy. “For us, the MSME sector is our top priority, and we believe whatever we do for the…sector, will shape India’s transition to clean energy,” he said.

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The conference was organised by World Resources Institute India (WRII) in partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC). “India cannot achieve net-zero emissions by 2070 without addressing the energy needs and clean energy challenges of the country’s 63 million strong small businesses community. Solutions for this sector would also make them globally competitive, as ever more multinational corporations look to decarbonizing their supply chains,” OP Agarwal, CEO, WRII said.

Highlighting the need for a just transition in this sector, he also opined that moving to cleaner energy and low carbon operations will enhance the sector’s competitiveness and profit margins. The conference also marked the culmination of the week-long launch of the Innovative Clean Energy Technology Platform (I-CET) by WRII and ISC in partnership with the government’s Technology Information Assessment Forecasting Council. This platform aims to create an enabling ecosystem to promote clean technology innovations in India’s small businesses sector. I-CET would focus on small businesses’ cluster specific technological challenges.