Necessity the Mother of Invention: Young Indian Innovators

 

We are more than midway through the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), a global call for action led by the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that aims to 

"prevent, halt, and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide, aiming to revive 1 billion hectares of land and protect marine environments."

It's a good time to access our progress and check out the main threats to ecosystems and the innovations and innovators tackling it. 

Overwhelmingly environmental threats include the climate crisis, deforestation, soil degradation, air pollution, water pollution and plastic pollution. In nearly all cases innovators leading the charge have overwhelmingly been young people.

Threats to ecosystems are directly and indirectly risks to human security and innovations - be they recognized, award winning and community level life-changing - have come from young people who have seen a problem and found solutions for it. 

The search engine Ecosia's planting of over 250 million trees in key ecosystems thus restoring vital natural resources has been a major win fr Ecosystem Restoration.

Young Innovators nationally and internationally, individually and through innovative community intervention have played a vital role in improving ecosystems as well as lives and livelihoods. 

The focus of this post will be young Indian Innovators whose innovations have led to climate action (SDG 13), environmental cleanup as well as improved lives.

Source: Ideal City 2026: Nature Research Intelligence/Springer Nature

SDG 9: Industry Innovation and Infrastructure

Young Indian Innovators boosting SDGs

Three 16-year-olds Indians from Delhi-NCR, Vivaan Chhawchharia, Ariana Agarwal, and Avyana Mehta, won the $100,000 Grand Prize of Earth Prize 2026 after becoming Regional Winners from India with their innovation Plas-Stick. Seeing the problem of microplastic pollution in water resources everywhere they came up with a low-cost innovation to ensure clean water for all, especially in rural India where access to safe drinking water and affordable tech to clean were both challenges. Their innovative use of ubiquitous tamarind seed powder to bind and remove microplastics rightfully earned then the Earth Prize 2026.     

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Mahek Parvez then a student pupil leader of a leading school in Chennai (Tamil Nadu, India), Chettinad Vidyashram as a teenager designed a "refrigerator" that functioned without electricity or a coolant. This innovation that won the Lexus Design Award India improved lives and livelihoods as well as cutting down food wastage (SDG 12, SDG 2) and carbon footprint (SDG 13) of food produce. 

 

The "SunHarvested CoolRooms" which triples shelf-life of fruits and vegetables was a response to the young lady witnessing the problem of spoiling produce and the challenges of access to electricity and affordable cooling solutions and solved the problem by applying basic physics innovatively. 

This led Mehak to a Research internship at IIT-Madras' Prof. KS Reddy Sustainable Cooling Heat Transfer & Thermal Properties lab (2023-2024), the Lexus Eco Award and graduate studies in the United States. 

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Iron Max, the solar-powered ironing cart designed by then 14 year old Vinisha Umashankar from Thiruvanamalai, Tamil Nadu, India got her nominated for the inaugural Earthshot Prize of 2021 in the "Clean Our Air" category.

Seeing local dobhis (laundry persons) handle coal under the scorching sun - polluting the air and adding to greenhouse gases led to Vinisha, the Earthshot Prize's youngest ever nominee to design Iron Max - the Solar Ironing Cart even before she was a teenager after months of researching and innovating a solution. 

 

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These innovations all improved ecosystems as well as lives and livelihoods. 

SDG10 - Reduced Inequalities 

Nearly 15 years ago, then 12 year old Shalini Kumari from Patna, Bihar saw her her grandfather using a walker because of limited mobility struggle with steps and designed the adjustable walker that can be used to climb steps as well as walk on flat surfaces. By improving the access of people with limited mobility, Shalini's retractable walker improved mobility and lives of people with limited mobility. To date it remains a cost-effective and life-changing innovation in the lives of many. Improved mobility in many ways is empowerment. 

Just a student of Class 8, her life-changing innovation won her the Ignite Award 2011. 

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More recently WALK by Lifespark Technologies - a smart gait support system for Parkinson's Patients was also an innovative solution Amey Desai designed in response to his grandfather's struggles with Parkinsons Disease that has gone on to empower and improve the life, gait and safety of many suffering from the sudden fall/freeze inducing neurological condition as well as similar conditions. 

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Avishyant Panda, IAS, of the 2017 batch through his innovative community-level intervention across Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra ("Lungs of Maharashtra") has reduced inequalities and built a climate-resilient, water-secure community. His efforts at watershed management, tree-planting and water bodies restoration boosts multiple SDGs: SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities through community empowerment, SDG6 - Access to Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG 11 - Sustainable Communities, SDG 13 - Climate Action, SDG 14 - Life Below Water, SDG 15 - Life on Land.

From COP15 to Climate Action Day to COP26: October Musings

 The big deal in October 2021 includes two environmental conference of parties (COP) separated by the first ever Earthshot Prize ceremony and the International Day of Climate Action. 

Between the two avenues for rhetoric the finalists and winners of Earthshot Prize with their innovative solutions for the problems that plague our planet offer hope in this the first year of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. They are icons to be celebrated o f the Day of Climate Action and beyond in order to bridge the climate rhetoric-climate reality divide.

The first COP to occur in October was the first part of the Biodiversity COP15 that took place online between October 11th and 15th, online among the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. With China as chair, this was a forerunner to the second-part of the COP15 - the in-person session scheduled to happen in Kunming between April 25th and May 8th 2022. With the Chinese premiere giving the Climate COP in Glasgow beginning on Halloween 2021 a miss, this Biodiversity COP15 was where China flexed its environmental muscle. With the 6th Mass Extinction and immeasurable and irreplaceable biodiversity loss being part of our reality, made worse by the nightmare of the climate crisis manifesting the world over with particularly devastating effects in the poorer, island, coastal and tropical parts of the world, the need to act to protect biodiversity and address climate change is existentially vital. Thus it makes sense that in between the two COPs on October 19th, the million-pound Earthshot Prize ceremony to honor the 5 climate heroes - Eco-Oscars as it were, was hosted by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in Alexandra Palace, in London. This competition for the Royal Foundation's five million-pound prizes was launched mid-pandemic in 2020 by Prince William to give Earth a shot in the arm and address five critical issues and the five winners addressed these innovatively and effectively 

(1) 'the restoration and protection of nature' - Costa Rica, (2) 'air cleanliness' - Takachar, India (3)  'ocean revival' - CoralVita - Bahamas, (4) 'waste-free living' - The Food[Waste] Hubs of the City of Milan, Italy & (5) 'climate action' - Hydrogen producing Enapter's AEM electrolyser (Thailand, Germany, Italy).

Key takeaways from the Online UN Biodiversity COP15 include world leaders acknowledging certain facts but not taking much action: 

(1) As Nature's Decline Threatens Humanity, We Must Work to Reverse Biodiversity Loss; (2) Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework: Understanding the Scope and Scale of the Biodiversity Crisis; (3) Kunming Declaration - a commitment to protect 30% of land and sea area by 2030 [30-30] (4) Gap between promises of biodiversity protection and any real or effective climate action (5) Need for Global Biodiversity Fund. The difficulty in actually achieving the much needed 30-30 protection in the face of so-called "economic realities" - the pandemic-fuelled global economic slowdown and resultant domino of energy crises and economic crisis that put environmental crises on the back burner even though it costs nations billions of dollars they can't afford. 

Case in point, according to a World Meteorological Organization report, the natural disasters in 2020 cost India $87 billion, i.e., ₹65 Lakh Crores.

As I predicted in my article for the Chennai Centre for China Studies (C3S) in September, not much can be expected from COP15 in the face of geopolitical and human security concerns. The main agenda of COP15 included positioning China as an environmental force to be reckoned with, showcase of Chinese success stories in biodiversity protection and its Red Line Plan as well as paving the way for a much-needed multi-billion dollar Global Biodiversity Fund even though it will take a long time for countries to make and honor these commitments. 

With these gaps in rhetoric and reality in mind, perhaps it becomes clear why the International Day for Climate Action 2021, October 24th, doesn't have the same prestige or reach of say Earth Day or Environment Day. The Fridays for Future movement is more impactful. and in a way as long as there is real climate action, it doesn't really matter if we celebrate the Day of Climate Action widely or not! And this is where it is hoped that the Climate COP26 to be held in Glasgow between October 31st and November 12th will make a dent in ensuring that world leaders and corporations commit to climate action and limiting carbon emissions. The real scary thing on Halloween 2021 will be the cost in emissions and money that the world is spending on what many believe is an eye-wash of a "greenwashing" conference hoping for a better outcome!

So ahead of COP26 here's a checklist to keep in mind while assessing the Climate COP26 that begins on Halloween: 

Now let's get into the specifics. @climate's set out the priorities for what to look out for at #COP26.

1. Higher commitments from countries
2. Rules for a global carbon market
3. $100 billion in finance for developing countries
4. Reducing coal use
5. Reducing methane emissions

— Akshat Rathi (@AkshatRathi) October 21, 2021