Narasimhan Santhanam’s Post

𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐂𝐄𝐎𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐄𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐨? A large part of my business interactions are with CEOs and other top management professionals - leaders of small startups to some of the largest firms in the world. In my opinion, next to government leaders, CEOs comprise the stakeholder segment with the most potential to take effective climate action. Given that the most powerful stakeholder segment is fickle and fragile ( 4 year fickle in the US, 5 year fickle in countries like India...), I would place my bet on the corporate leadership segment to get the world out of the mess for which their companies themselves are mostly responsible. But are the actions of corporate leaders & CEOs in India and worldwide anywhere close to effective? It is my job to track corporate climate action, especially in the top management context. I have been doing this for years now - in retrospect, I feel I could have done more interesting things :-( I can tell you with utter certainty that the answer to the above question is a BIG NO. CEOs of large CO2 emitting firms know that their climate actions are nowhere commensurate with what are needed - and if they don't know this, they don't know enough. But CEOs have their challenges. Analysis of these challenges is for a different post, but suffice to say that I don't envy them - they are stuck between the proverbial devil (stakeholders :-)) and the deep sea (decarbonization challenges). So, here is how it stands: => CEOs and top corporate leadership are perhaps our best bet for Net Zero action => They are not doing anywhere near good on this, anywhere in the world => Something got to give. Now, if you were expecting, in this post, a climate strategy pathway from me for CEOs, sorry to disappoint - I don't have one. But I can tell you this - if we somehow get the E in CEO to also mean Environment, if these honchos start getting environment in their blood and veins, that might be a good starting point. 𝘔𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵. Do you think CEOs can get environment in their blood and veins and souls and minds - and not just outsource it conveniently to a CSO? I will be glad to get your answers and thoughts. (See all my decarbonization posts from 𝐍𝐞𝐭 𝐙𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐛𝐲 𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐢 - https://shorturl.at/jx137 ) .

𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 "𝘛𝘢𝘵𝘢 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘉24 𝘣𝘪𝘰𝘧𝘶𝘦𝘭 𝘷𝘰𝘺𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘈𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘢 𝘵𝘰 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢" - blared the headlines of a recent news item. ( https://lnkd.in/dZQQ4yZt ) Sounds like a rather important development. I think it indeed is, but it is also important to understand how important it is, and for which sector! Here is why I'm spinning words around this news item: => We are not talking about Tata Steel using biofuels at its refinery. => We are not even talking about Tata Steel using biofuels to reduce the emissions of steel or iron ore being shipped in or out. 𝐖𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐛𝐢𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐥 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐟𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐜𝐞. While any decarbonization effort is welcome, we should remind ourselves that the emissions from this shipping activity could form a rather small percentage of the total carbon footprint of Tata Steel, a dominant portion of which will be coming from its iron and steel production operations. To get a better idea of what I'm talking about, do look at my scribbled illustration at the end. You will see that, for a typical large steel company, the CO2 footprint from long distance shipping (about 10000 Km) will form only about 4-5% of the total CO2 footprint of steel that comes out of a steel mill. In this case, if biofuels had reduced emissions by about 20%, we are talking about a 1% reduction (20%*5%) in overall emissions from this exercise! That is, biofuel in shipping is an important development - but more for the shipping sector and much less for the steel sector, though we are all happy with them for making a start! For those interested in some math around emissions from shipping coal in this case (from Australia to India): Taking CO2 emissions metrics for ships (16 g/ ton Km), and using the total distance from Gladstone in Oz to Paradip port (10,000 Km), we get the total emissions from shipping for 1 ton of coal to be about 0.16 ton of CO2. With a 20% emissions reduction from the blend (as mentioned in the news report), we get the emissions reduced by 0.04 ton of CO2 per ton of coal. To give you some perspective, burning 1 ton of coal in a blast furnace alone will lead to about 1.8 tons of CO2, which is about 45 times as much as the emissions reduced in this exercise! Other notes: 1. CO2 emissions mentioned in the illustration is CO2eq which includes all emissions (such as CH4). 2. All percentages are for typical integrated iron & steel companies working with blast furnaces, are approximate as emissions vary depending on many factors. 3. Steel makers are also pursuing other avenues to reduce emissions from blast furnaces. (See all my decarbonization posts from 𝐍𝐞𝐭 𝐙𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐛𝐲 𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐢 - https://shorturl.at/jx137 ) .

𝐒𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐀𝐯𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐅𝐮𝐞𝐥 𝐎𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚 The airline sector is a rather interesting - and the same time vexing - one when it comes to decarbonization. Unlike many others, this sector's decarbonization choices are very limited. In fact, right now, there is practically no avenue for commercial airlines to go for deep decarbonization. Except one – sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). SAF is an aviation fuel similar to jet fuel that is used today, but one produced from sustainable and renewable sources. The net carbon footprint of SAF are much lower than what they are for fossil based jet fuels. What are the sources for SAF? – vegetable oil, used cooking oil, animal fat, and also, with some newer pathways, diverse agricultural waste. So, what’s stopping the aviation and allied industries from investing massively into producing SAF at scale, with so many sources to play with? Two key challenges: => One, the technology and economics of all SAF pathways are still emerging – especially pathways that use "waste" feedstock such as biomass gasification, or the latest pathway which is ethanol to jet fuel. => Two, for most pathways, availability of feedstock at scale is a serious challenge. Most feedstock considered for SAF – vegetable oil including used cooking oil, municipal solid waste, ethanol feedstock – have availability bottlenecks. One feedstock that could be available just enough is agri residues. The world uses about 260 million tons of jet fuel a year. Using the right technologies, a 20-25% conversion (by weight) of agri residues to jet fuel is possible. If the world of agriculture is able to mobilize about a billion tons of agricultural residues, and the world of engineering is able to convert this to jet fuel economically, you and I can fly with much less guilt of CO2 emissions. And this is where India enters. Estimates are shaky – I have 3 different, widely different estimates – but conservatively, India currently has about 250 million tons of agri residues annually that are not utilized (some estimates put this at twice this number!). Taking a decent fraction of this surplus to be utilized for SAF, India could perhaps supply 10% of global SAF needs. I think that is a big deal for aviation. And also for India. I'm not the only one who thinks it is a big deal. At our bio-energy consulting division (https://lnkd.in/gfCFHgGi ), we have had enquiries & interest on SAF production in India from a range of stakeholders - from large global conglomerates to high tech solution providers firms to large Indian engineering & EPC firms. Having worked in the biofuels sector for over 15 years now, optimism does not readily spring in my bosom when it comes to scaling any new biofuel, but I think SAF has some interesting business cases that set it apart from many others. (See all my decarbonization posts from 𝐍𝐞𝐭 𝐙𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐛𝐲 𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐢 - https://shorturl.at/jx137 ) .

𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐥𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 - 𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐇 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘯 𝘜𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱 Organized by CLIMAFIX and The Energy Consortium - IIT Madras . Are You a College Student Ready to turn your sustainable innovation into reality? Pitch at Clinch - Climate Innovation Challenge on UnStop! For the CLINCH June 2024 contest. Submit your innovative climate solutions for a chance to get recognised at pan- India level, connect with industry leaders and win cash prizes! Registration for the CLINCH monthly contest June 2024 on UnStop is now open! Use the link to register: https://lnkd.in/gaWrPvTy CLINCH is a pan-India student climate contest organized by The Energy Consortium - IIT Madras and CLIMAFIX , the leader in climate innovation intelligence. Request you to share this with relevant college students. Thanks! Satyanarayanan Seshadri , Nikhil Tambe, CEO, Energy Consortium - IIT Madras Manohar Namasivayam .

𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥 𝐍𝐚𝐝𝐮 What's giving rise to the phenomenon of so many chess masters from India being from Tamil Nadu? I just counted, and it looks like almost 30% of all grandmasters of India are from TN. A state with 6% of the country's population, contributing about 9% to its GDP, and having a literacy rate that is only a bit higher than the national average (80% vs 74%) - so, neither demographic, nor social, nor economic indicators are highly correlated to this high contribution to chess champions. So what is working for TN in Chess? Is it the support infrastructure? Is it just sheer motivation because of Vishy's success early on? Is it some sort of government initiative ( will be mega surprised if it is)? Is it the cluster effect - where both the number of entities and the average value of each increases with the cluster size? Unravelling this interesting little puzzle could perhaps help us in developing powerful talent hubs for sports, education, AI and more across many states in India. Surely, but surely, it cannot be because Tamil Nadu folks are more intelligent than others?...a possibility rendered even more remote with representatives like me. .

Great job, Jindal Stainless and congrats to Abhyuday Jindal

Great job - congrats to Sumant Sinha and Renew Power

Wow, congrats & all the best to Adani Group, Adani Green Energy Ltd.

Excellent, congrats to airtel

Good show, Tata Motors