Gauri Jauhar underscores persistent biases women face in energy transition leadership roles.
India’s clean energy growth continues, with 50% low-carbon power by 2026.
ESG integration and policy reforms are crucial for market-driven climate outcomes.
Mission-Driven Leadership Can Boost India’s Climate-Tech Transition, Says ED Gauri Jauhar
Inclusive, mission-driven strategies are shaping India’s clean energy and climate-tech future
Gauri Jauhar, Executive Director for Energy Transition Consulting, S&P Global Energy
Summary
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Even though India is on track to meet its 2030 climate target, low-carbon technologies are expected to account for 50% of power generation capacity this year, five years ahead of schedule, the country's clean energy and electric mobility sectors are still growing, with at least ten significant clean-tech companies going public in 2024 alone. Bloomberg NEF projected that power demand will peak at 370 gigawatts in 2025 due to urbanisation, electrification and increasingly unpredictable weather.
Gauri Jauhar, Executive Director for Energy Transition Consulting, discussed her experiences overcoming these obstacles and provided guidance for aspiring female leaders in an exclusive interview with Outlook Business. Edited excerpts:
As a woman with over two decades of experience in energy, what challenges or biases have you faced and how did you navigate them?
The unconscious biases that are sticky due to culture and conditioning can surface at any time and it takes a conscious effort of organisations and individuals to want to reprogram the inherent biases. For being a truly inclusive professional, I think this needs to be the core of soft skills training to build balanced functioning teams.
When I have come across biases and structural challenges, I have typically been aware of situations and have addressed situations with an attitude to understand what is at play.
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What motivated you to build a career at the intersection of energy, economics and clean tech, and what advice would you give aspiring women leaders?
From my formative years, I was attracted to the idea of working in a core, essential sector and discipline. That interest varied as widely as medicine to shipping and I think manifested in the energy sector.
After completing my education in economics and finance, I was keen to be part of an industry where these concepts can be applied to enable a complete understanding of strategy, operations, policymaking and regulatory frameworks.
From your perspective, how effectively is India integrating hydrogen, clean fuels and renewables into its broader energy mix?
India is approaching the integration of new energy sources in a balanced and solution-oriented manner, given the compulsions of inclusive growth of a leading country in the Global South.
India reflected this internationally in a choice of its net zero in 2070 as a more realistic timeframe to achieve the transition and transformation of the global and Indian energy systems, especially in the light of integrated global supply chains.
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What reforms are key to fast-tracking India’s clean-tech deployment and attracting long-term global investment?
Two aspects are most critical today. First, it is essential to guarantee a thorough orientation toward market-oriented policies, backed by sufficient safety precautions and legal safeguards. Second, since these issues are widespread in a number of industries, including the energy sector, systemic biases, such as the ubiquitous "race to the bottom" on price and quality of project outcomes driven by lowest-cost bidding, must be addressed.
If addressed consistently and simultaneously, will make more robust and sustainable energy choices at the project level for companies. As these choices roll up, they will also bring better visibility for targets toward a sustainable future energy system.
How important is ESG and cross-sector mitigation for achieving tangible, market-driven climate outcomes in India?
To the extent ESG integration implies building a more responsible culture and ecosystem cross-sector, it is critical. ESG integration should not just be a tick box exercise and should filter down to even micro-operational choices, apart from the strategic blueprints of organisations.
This approach makes ESG integration more meaningful and credible. If ESG remains as a tick box exercise, it reinforces the argument that challenges ESG at its core, as organisations may appear to be fulfilling their societal role without truly embedding responsibility in operations.
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