Sustainability

India’s steel sector stands at a decisive moment. As the country pursues industrial growth, it must also demonstrate that development and decarbonisation can move together. The carbon budget framework offers not a constraint, but a compass, guiding industry toward innovation, resilience and global competitiveness.

The centralized cloud model is now under strain. India alone is estimated to have reached roughly 2,070 MW of data center capacity by the end of 2025, up from about 1,255 MW in 2024, driven by AI adoption, 5G rollout, and video led consumption, even as power, land, and network constraints become more visible. At the same time, global data center markets are grappling with power constraints, rising energy costs, and land limitations, making the continued expansion of a few large hubs increasingly inefficient.

IEEFA’s analysis finds that the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) S2 offers robust climate-specific guidance, while the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) framework adopts a broader, ESG-oriented approach, with limited alignment to climate transition planning needs.

ICRA expects the Indian steel industry’s decarbonization to be gradual, with near-term emission reductions driven mainly by higher adoption of renewable energy and improvements in operational efficiency, as high costs and technology constraints limit faster decarbonization.

India’s Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has released draft guidelines for the implementation of a Battery Pack Aadhaar system—an indigenous digital identification and data storage mechanism designed to ensure end-to-end lifecycle traceability of batteries, particularly those used in electric vehicles (EVs).

While India has research capabilities across public laboratories and academic institutions in both rare earths and battery recycling, the transition from lab-scale innovation to industrial deployment has been slow. This gap between research and commercial execution continues to limit scale across the critical minerals ecosystem.

Japan is set to impose stricter environmental oversight on future large-scale solar projects. The government may also discontinue financial support under its feed-in tariff and feed-in premium schemes for large, ground-mounted solar beginning April 2027.

Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) has claimed the top spot in the latest Energy Intelligence Top 100 Green Utilities ranking, pushing past China’s National Nuclear Corp. and Spain’s Acciona.

The IUCN’s updated Global Standard, growing debate on finance, and stronger emphasis on rights and monitoring mark a transition from hopeful experimentation to disciplined scaling. If the next year invests in credibility and the scaffolding that turns pilots into pipelines, Nature-based Solutions could finally become a practical pillar of climate, biodiversity and development strategies worldwide.

Once the new plants are commissioned, Attero’s overall processing capacity across e-waste and metals recovery will reach 244,000 tonnes per annum.