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The materials blind spot in clean energy policy




20 Feb 2026

Delhi Climate Week was kickstarted in IIT Delhi yesterday with an opening session on ‘people first low carbon technologies to bridge the climate ambition with economic growth’. As the speakers emphasized, the purpose of Delhi Climate Week is to position Delhi as the leading voice of the global south on climate and green technology issues & to shape the discourse rather than just follow along on the issues set by others. 

Mr Erik Solheim, Former Minister of Climate and the Environment of Norway, gave opening remarks as he recalled the success of Brazil COP 30 last November. 
This was followed by a very inspiring talk from Dr RK Malhotra ,the president of hydrogen association of India, in which he outlined some of the challenges in green hydrogen production and steps that can be taken to overcome them.   

I could not help but notice ,not just in this particular climate focussed event but in several others that I have had the pleasure of attending, that carbon continues to be antagonised. I think the idea that carbon is inherently bad for the environment is hard to justify scientifically and economically. 
Now it's certainly true that CO2 is a greenhouse gas that has contributed to global warming and steps need to be taken to minimize its emissions. It is undeniable that carbon materials are possibly the only materials that can be efficiently recycled & can enable a circular economy on scale. 

One of the core reasons behind this is the fact that carbon is embedded into Lignocellulose which is available as an engineering material not just via wood but also through agricultural waste & grassy biomass. Annual production of Lignocellulose exceeds trillion kilograms which is greater than all of the materials -all steel,cement,glass,silicon,plastics combined. No material can come even remotely close to the availability of carbon based cellulose. 

This frankly is not an accidental outcome. Carbon is one of the most abundant materials in the entire universe. When combined with other two abundant materials namely hydrogen and oxygen it's not surprising that cellulose would be produced in such large quantities. 
Cellulose has the potential to replace many applications where plastics are used traditionally. What it lacks is the presence of a green glue. But here too there are developments that give reason for cautious optimism. First there is the possibility of using glass cellulose composites for sealed containers. Then there are developments in functionalized  nano carbon adhesives (graphene oxide is very promising here). Direct carbon capture offers even more possibilities by allowing proven technologies like epoxy being created via hydrocarbons obtained through fischer tropsch process enabling true green carbon cycle. 

FT in particular flips the entire discussion around sustainability as the core reasons that made carbon unsustainable no longer hold. This has applications in Sustainable fuels and materials. 

I've often noticed that talks on green technologies often conflate material and energy challenges. These are 2 different things and need different approaches to solve. I've always maintained that energy is a materials science problem. Without the ability to manufacture materials sustainably and circularly, the energy problem is difficult, if not impossible to solve. 

But many proponents of clean energy often overlook this aspect. The calls for electrification without developing means to find alternatives to copper ,lithium and other magnet materials could create barriers to future development. As they have already created nearly insurmountable technological barriers for developing nations. Localisation of battery manufacturing technologies is not happening any time soon. Nor are trade secrets that give developed nations a clear technological leadership over developing nations are going to be shared. If that does happen it would set a benchmark for global cooperation that would be hard to surpass. Perhaps it can happen but what if it doesn't? If the only strategy that nations have to advance the green agenda is via tech transfer I'm afraid that the progress is going to be really slow. 

Several speakers asserted that no country in the world has ever developed on green technologies and if India were to do so it would set a new paradigm of economic development. The statement ,while true,lacked nuance. Green technologies especially wind energy was developed right around the same time when Edison established his first electric power generation plant. François Isaac de Rivaz invented hydrogen based internal combustion engines in 1807 ,1. It's important to be clear about this fact. Renewable technologies are not new. They are not recent developments. Their growth has been systemically suppressed by politicians and lobbyists choosing the easy way out. How much could we have progressed had some key decision been taken earlier? 

Even now developing nations are seeing green transition as an item on the checklist that needs to be ticked so that they can get on with ‘real’ initiatives that make them more prosperous. I like to think that the RE transition could create new industries. Reduce the price of energy & usher in industrialisation at a pace that is unimaginable using any other means. 
Delhi Climate Week is certainly a great initiative. It is great if developing nations could speak out on the challenges that are unique to their economies as they make a move towards transitioning to green technology. But I felt something was missing. There was no participation from people who would enable this change. All that has happened is that elites in developed nations have been replaced by elites in developing nations who now take decisions and set strategy for what new jobs the labour force should be directed onto. The entire circus is following their lead. Thousands of educational institutions have come up with green degrees to cash in. Green parties have emerged politically to take advantage of this new movement. 

But for a true transformation it's important that people take back control of scientific discovery,engineering and business. Their institutionalization has created silos where thought leaders are sermonising in closed echo chambers signalling virtue to make themselves feel good about what they do. This must change. 

REFERENCES 

François Isaac de Rivaz

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Isaac_de_Rivaz

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