Ajay Banga Leads TIME’s List Of Climate Leaders
India-West News Desk
NEW YORK, NY – Ajay Banga, Gaurav Sant, and Sandeep Nijhawan were three Indian Americans featured in TIME magazine’s 2024 list of the 100 most influential climate leaders in business. These leaders represented a growing movement of individuals driving meaningful progress in the battle against climate change.
The publication highlighted that “finance is the climate story of 2024,” emphasizing that leaders worldwide were working to unlock the funding and resources necessary to drive equitable climate action.
As president of the World Bank, Ajay Banga made significant strides in integrating climate priorities into the institution’s mission. Since taking office in 2023, he worked to reduce risks for private sector investment in energy transition projects, particularly in the Global South. TIME noted Banga’s efforts to reform World Bank lending rules, which enabled more financing for climate initiatives. His approach linked climate action with the Bank’s broader development agenda, incorporating climate considerations into various sectors, from agriculture to education.
Gaurav Sant, founder of Equatic, led efforts to build North America’s first commercial-scale ocean-based carbon removal facility. As the Director of UCLA’s Institute for Carbon Management, Sant’s company enhanced the ocean’s ability to capture and store carbon by passing electrical currents through seawater. That year, Equatic made a breakthrough in developing an anode that would enable the facility to produce green hydrogen, making large-scale carbon removal more affordable.
Sandeep Nijhawan co-founded Electra in 2020, with the mission of decarbonizing iron and steel production. The company used an electrochemical process powered by renewable energy, which enabled the production of iron at much lower temperatures. Electra’s pilot plant began operating in March, and in April, the company received over $2.8 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. Nijhawan advocated for a global carbon price to encourage widespread adoption of decarbonizing technologies in industries.
Also included in the list were Sumant Sinha, founder and CEO of India-based ReNew, Madhur Jain, CEO of Varaha ClimateAg, and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Since founding ReNew in 2011, Sumant Sinha positioned the company as one of India’s top renewable energy producers. Under his leadership, ReNew developed wind and solar plants across India to meet its growing energy demands. In 2023, he was appointed co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, a group of over 130 CEOs committed to advancing corporate decarbonization efforts.
Madhur Jain headed Varaha, a company promoting sustainable farming in South Asia and Africa. Varaha incentivized smallholder farmers to adopt regenerative practices that preserved carbon in the soil. The company onboarded over 80,000 farmers and covered 700,000 acres in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Kenya, sequestering 1.7 million metric tons of CO2. In 2023, it raised $8.7 million to expand its operations.
Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim mayor of a major European capital, continued to champion green policies despite political pressure. Re-elected for a historic third term in May 2024, Khan’s climate agenda included a push for cleaner air, including expanding a tax on high-polluting vehicles and implementing a new 10-point climate action plan. His bold stance drove London’s push toward net-zero emissions by 2030, which included initiatives to retrofit homes, reduce car use, and phase out fossil fuel-powered vehicles.
