WWF-India recognizes innovative solutions through Climate Solver Awards

Four Indian innovators – GPS Renewables Pvt. Ltd., TESSOL, Simpa Energy India Pvt. Ltd. and Onergy (Punam Energy Pvt. Ltd.) - were conferred with WWF-India’s Climate Solver Award today at New Delhi. Started in Sweden in 2008 and in India in 2012, the Climate Solver initiative has now expanded to include countries like India, China and South Africa.

This year’s winners were awarded under two categories – Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Reduction and Energy Access (EA).  Simpa Energy Pvt. Ltd. and Onergy (Punam Energy Pvt. Ltd.) were awarded for their innovative business models in enhancing energy access for rural households, and GPS Renewables Pvt. Ltd. and TESSOL were recognized for their cutting edge technologies under the GHG reduction category.

The Climate Solver (CS) initiative is WWF’s global innovation platform to encourage and support low carbon innovative technologies that contribute towards mitigating climate change.  The platform strengthens the development and widespread use of low carbon technologies that are being commercialized by thousands of SMEs around the world. The World Bank estimates that the cleantech opportunity for SMEs in 145 developing countries over the next decade is at $6.4 trillion.

“I believe in human intent and intellect. I believe in innovation”, said Shri Prakash Javadekar, Hon’ble Minister of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, in a video message conveyed during the award ceremony. He congratulated the winners and invited more solutions from such entrepreneurs.  Recognizing innovation as a significant change agent, he added, “This initiative of WWF will go a long way to have more innovations in India, and India offering a real solution for climate change.”

If these winning business models under the EA category, Progressive Purchase by Simpa and Hub & Spoke by Onergy, are replicated at a large scale, they can together reach out to around 40 million people. The innovative technologies under GHG Reduction category – BioUrja, a dry anaerobic digester by GPS Renewables and PLUGnCHILL, a cold storage refrigeration solution by TESSOL, have the potential to mitigate around 50 million tonnes of GHG emissions.

Mr. Ravi Singh, SG & CEO, WWF-India said, “We are pleased to help showcase these technologies and innovative business models that can be emulated and scaled up both nationally as well as globally. Solutions such as these have the potential to bring about rapid and transformative changes at the grassroot level – in terms of reducing carbon emissions, providing clean energy access, reducing pressure on natural resources, providing conservation benefits, and overall compatibility with transition to a renewable energy future.”

Speaking at the event, Mr Stefan Hennigsson, Senior Adviser for WWF’s Global Climate and Energy Initiative said, “Climate science and recent innovation trends tell the same story. As a global collective we should aim at an inclusive transition to 100% renewable energy as fast as we can whilst providing better services for people and planet. This is a trillion dollar global market and India has the potential to be a very strong commercialiser of such solutions coming from entrepreneurs such as the ones awarded today. But the Global Cleantech Innovation Index shows that India has untapped opportunities in increasing investor activity in the area, improving research infrastructure and in forging more strategic partnerships with countries that are already very strong in early-stage cleantech innovation”

Since 2102, 13 SMEs have been recognized as Climate Solvers in India, including the four winners from this year. WWF-India has been partnering with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), New Ventures India, Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (IIM Ahmedabad), Skyquest Technology Consulting Pvt. Ltd., National Innovation Foundation and Technology Development Board (Department of Science and Technology, Government of India) for the Climate Solver initiative.

Previous climate solver awardees under the Energy Access theme in India were Envirofit India, Naturetech Infrastructure, Gram Power and Enfragy Solutions, and under the GHG Reduction theme were Aspiration Energy, Clique Developments, Ecolibrium Energy, Toro Cooling Systems and GIBSS. Two of the winners -Toro and Clique Developments - were also among the 100 innovators listed in this year’s Sustainia100. All the WWF awarded entrepreneurs - from India, China, South Africa and Sweden - are portrayed on www.climatesolver.org. Read about India’s strengths and weaknesses in nurturing clean technology entrepreneurs in WWF and Cleantech Group’s Global Cleantech Innovation Index.