Leadership Group for Industry Transition

Aerial view of colourful containers, Bukit Merah, Singapore — Photo: chuttersnap / Unsplash.

Industry currently accounts for roughly 30% of global CO₂ emissions. Industry actors will have to reduce emissions sharply in order for the world to reach the target of the Paris agreement – to limit global warming to “well below” 2% by the end of the century.

To that effect, the governments of Sweden and India, with support from the World Economic Forum (WEF) launched the Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT) at the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit in September 2019. LeadIT is grounded in the conviction that partnership between the public and private sectors is key to achieving the industrial transition.

LeadIT carries out analysis to improve the collective understanding of the opportunities and challenges in industry transitions. It looks at global examples of industry transitions, as well as at key policy and industry levers to facilitate and manage transitions. LeadIT supports governments and industries to co-produce stakeholder-led pathways to low-carbon industry transformation. It also provides actionable measures on innovation and finance and gives a platform for sharing know-how.

LeadIT provides an arena for public-private collaboration and sectoral and cross-sectoral learning. It enables collaboration between political and industry decision makers by convening high level dialogues to catalyse leadership. It delivers a platform for sharing know-how on innovation opportunities and new technologies.

The management board is made up of representatives from Sweden, India and the World Economic Forum. A technical and expert committee made up of representatives from LeadIT members advises the board. The board approves new company members and decides on the workplan of the secretariat. The secretariat is responsible for managing the work of the leadership group and hosted by SEI.