“Only Affordable Growth Can Be Sustainable” Featuring Sunita Narain, India’s Center for Science and the Environment

We are focusing on India this week at Veriten and are excited to study the country, their needs, their challenges, and their opportunities. Today we were delighted to welcome Sunita Narain, Director General of the Center for Science and the Environment (CSE). Sunita is a 40-year environmentalist, political activist, and author; her work includes in-depth research on the governance and management of the environment. She is the editor of " Down to Earth" magazine and the author of " Conflicts of Interest," a collection of essays on the environmental movement in India. We were lucky enough to meet Sunita at this year's CERAWeek in Houston and as you will hear, she is incredibly passionate, upbeat, thoughtful, and pleasant. We are big fans and supporters.

To start the session, Sunita provides background on the CSE and their history. The CSE is a think tank agency that focuses their research on environmental issues with the intent to use their research to push for change. In our discussion, we touch on India's advanced waste management systems, the coal industry, the letter Sunita wrote to the Finance Minister about natural gas taxation, air quality, water management, climate change, the current high temperatures in India, energy security, developing the energy grid in India, and the importance of thinking interdependently in today's world. We wrap up with Sunita's vision for the energy and environmental world in ten years, and her thoughtful and touching response emphasizes how different the developing world is from the day-to-day discussions we have in the OECD. Overall, we are excited to follow the CSE's developments in the upcoming years and are also glad to have made an incredible friend in Sunita.

Mike Bradley kicked off the session with a look at energy and commodity performance and highlighted key upcoming macro events, including the Supreme Court's ruling on West Virginia v. the Environmental Protection Agency and its importance. Colin Fenton chimed in with a follow-up on the LME copper curve, manufacturing activity, and China's shortening of COVID lockdown restrictions.

Later this week, we will sit down with Monte Dobson, CEO and Lead County Manager of ExxonMobil India and are excited to spend more time learning about India.

As always, thanks to you all for your support!