Gautam Adani Cautions Against The 'One sidedness' Of Davos

Gautam Adani, Chairman of the Adani Group, in a note posted on Linkedin, has cautioned against what he saw the one sidedness that has dominated global events ever since the pandemic in 2020.

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"Climate change, followed by the Covid pandemic, followed by global supply chain disruptions, then the ongoing war in Ukraine, followed by levels of inflation that the world has not seen for decades, has meant considerable panic and uncertainty. No one is even pretending any longer to know the answers."

Pointing out that even as the world had much to be pleased about in the way global cooperation led to the fast development of vaccines, the contrast with the "deep mistrust, prejudice, and greed inherent in the vaccine rollout, their availability and their pricing, leading to several layers of fracturing within nations and across nations".

Adani has specified the turmoil over energy after the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a prime example of this global weakness to climate change. "If ‘sustainability’ is the agenda and the pressing concern of the hour, then the world’s convictions should not be swayed by either war or pandemic. We must accept that there is a price to pay to make the changes we say we must make", he adds, pointing to how the west rushed to stockpile oil and gas from Russia even while imposing sanctions on the country.

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Stressing that the time had come to focus on collaboration over 'cooperation' to make real progress, Adani predicted a new thrust on PM Modi's Atmanirbhar (self sufficiency) push for the defense sector, thanks to the lessons being learnt from the disruptions in the Russia-Ukraine war now.

With some of the biggest existing and future commitments across green energy in the economy, especially green energy, Adani can certainly not be accused of being a billionnaire out to defend high carbon sectors. But the fact that he has recently moved into high emission sectors like Cement, where he has promised a lower carbon footprint as a selling point, mean that he does have a broader view than most of the challenges and opportunities being created by the green transition.

Even as Davos, the Adani Group has found time to sign MoU's worth Rs 60,000 crore with the Andhra government for green energy projects. In January, it had signed an MoU with global steel major Posco for an integrated steel plant near Mundhra, the hub of many of its largest projects.