As David Cameron and a large UK trade delegation met with their counterparts in Bangalore, India today, Bristol-based charity The Converging World represented an Indian panel to share their knowledge and experience with renewable energy deployment in India. David Cameron started a two day visit to India stating “I believe Britain should be India’s partner of choice in the years ahead.” His address in Bangalore listed three global challenges that we must tackle together: the economy, security and climate change. For India, climate change will trigger mass migration, unpredictable weather, monsoons not arriving when they should and water shortages. All of this will disrupt development and exacerbate poverty. The Converging World participated in a panel discussion chaired by the UK Minister for climate change and energy, Greg Barker. The panel was hosted by Tata BP Solar India Ltd at their new plant in Bangalore, and explored the opportunities for collaboration between the two countries to enable innovation around renewable energy. In a speech later, Greg Barker said that this government is in a hurry to tackle climate change. Wendy Stephenson, CEO of The Converging World, was invited to participate due to TCW’s experience and innovative approach in India. They invest in wind energy and use some of the revenue from the sale of electricity to build sustainable communities both in India and the UK. In India they are supporting the development of village-scale renewable energy, as well as skills and knowledge transfer to create jobs in the rural economy, and are studying how they can help villages adapt to the impacts of climate change. David Cameron said today that we need to ‘pioneer community activism’, and TCW is demonstrating this both in the UK and India by empowering communities with the skills, knowledge and tools to help themselves.
Thank you to British Airways for providing the flights to make this trip possible.