Technology transfer and finance remain the weakest links in global industrial decarbonisation. Discuss with reference to India-Sweden cooperation.

Steel and cement are hard-to-abate sectors: cutting their emissions needs costly, unproven technologies. In India, steel produces about 12% of CO2 emissions. Its intensity is 2.55 t CO2 per tonne, against a global average of 1.85 t [1]. India and Sweden's LeadIT partnership shows both what cooperation can do and how big the technology and finance gaps still are.

Why technology and finance are the weakest links

• Finance shortfall: the NCQG target is USD 300 billion a year by 2035. India's estimate of developing-country needs is USD 455–584 billion [2]. The LMDC bloc had demanded USD 1.3 trillion [3].
• Technology barriers: the Environment Minister said at COP28 that technology transfer and finance for industry transition were still unresolved [4].
• Pre-competitive risk: when a first-of-its-kind green plant works, rivals learn from it for free. So no single firm wants to pay for the pilot.
• Trade pressure: the EU CBAM adds compliance costs for Indian steel exports, and the UK plans a similar measure from 2027 [5].

India-Sweden cooperation: bridging the gap

• LeadIT 2.0 (2024–26) and the Industry Transition Partnership were co-launched at COP28 [6]. Technology transfer and co-development is one of LeadIT 2.0's three pillars [7].
• Swedish firms have been shortlisted for pre-pilot steel and cement projects in India [8].
• It follows a government–industry–academia model. Bodies such as NCCBM and the IITs research low-carbon technologies [9].

Limits of the partnership

• LeadIT is a voluntary coalition with no fund of its own. Industry is still asking for help with project preparation, pilots and capacity building [9].
• At COP29, leaders promised results by COP30 [8]. Yet LeadIT 3.0 is again framed as turning "ambition into tangible impact" [9], and there is no public scorecard of results.

Way forward

• Publish a project scorecard when LeadIT 3.0 launches at COP31 [9].
• Let projects prepared under the partnership apply to the ₹20,000 crore CCUS scheme [10].
• Give priority to pilots for products exported to CBAM markets [5].

Technology and finance are the bottlenecks both in global talks and in India-Sweden ties. LeadIT 3.0 can still act as a bridge: it can get projects ready for domestic schemes and global finance to fund. That would serve India's net-zero 2070 goal, SDGs 9 and 13, and the principle of CBDR-RC.