CEO Forum 2026
The world is at a critical juncture. Findings from the first Global Stocktake underline that current efforts are significantly misaligned with the ambition required to meet global climate and development goals. Achieving the temperature targets of the Paris Agreement demands a 43% reduction in global emissions by 2030, yet the implementation of existing nationally determined contributions is projected to deliver only a 2% reduction. Similarly, the mid-point review of the Sustainable Development Goals pains a sobering picture: of the 169 SDG targets, only 13% are on track, while 18% are not even being monitored. These realities point not only to gaps in implementation, but also to deeper systemic challenges relating to fragmented decision-making, short-termism, insufficient data, and misaligned incentives across institutions and markets.
The challenges confronting the world today are deeply interconnected, spanning climate change, economic volatility, social inequalities, and technological disruption. Addressing them requires transformational approaches that go beyond incremental action. Long-term vision is needed to anticipate risks and opportunities in an increasingly uncertain global landscape; diverse voices are essential to ensure that transitions are inclusive, credible, and grounded in real-world contexts; and strong values must anchor decision-making to principles of equity, responsibility, and resilience. It is within this context that the CEO Forum 2026 is being convened.
Building on TERI’s long-standing engagement with business leaders and sustainability practitioners, the CEO Forum 2026 will focus on the theme “Transformations: Vision, Voices, and Values for Sustainable Development.” The forum will bring together CEOs and senior leaders to reflect on what transformative leadership entails at a moment when the world is off track, and to explore how businesses can play a decisive role in driving systemic change aligned with global climate and development imperatives.
The CEO Forum has, over the years, evolved into a trusted platform for candid dialogue between business, policy and thought leaders. The 2025 edition, themed “Partnerships for Accelerating Sustainable Development and Climate Solutions,” underscored the importance of cross-sectoral collaboration to enable industrial decarbonization, build climate-resilient value chains, and unlock inclusive, low-carbon growth pathways. Reflections from these discussions continue to inform TERI’s work on policy engagement, coalition-building, and capacity development, and provide a strong foundation for the conversations planned for 2026.
To view highlights from the CEO Forum 2025.
Highlights from the business convenings at WSDS 2025
Looking ahead, CEO Forum 2026 will seek to move the discourse from ambition to action. It will challenge leaders to reimagine business models, governance structures, and partnerships that are fit for a rapidly changing world, and to consider how vision, voices and values can come together to accelerate climate action and advance sustainable development at scale. The deliberations from the forum will feed into TERI’s ongoing engagement with industry, government, and civil society, supporting actionable pathways aligned with India’s development priorities and global climate commitments.
Dr Vibha Dhawan
Director General, The Energy and Resources Institute
“India’s infrastructure transition must be built at scale and built clean. With affordable renewables and emerging solutions like green hydrogen, bold leadership can drive structural transformation across industry.”
Mr Mahendra Singhi
Distinguished Fellow and Governing Council Member, TERI
“Sustainability is no longer a boardroom slogan—it is a real pathway for excellence, and clean and intelligent technologies will define the future of competitive industry.”
Sanjay Kumar Singh
Director – Strategy & External Relations, Jindal Steel Ltd.
“The steel sector must grow to power India’s development, but growth cannot come at the cost of sustainability—our challenge is to build three times more steel with far less carbon.”
Dr Virinder Sharma
Member (Technical), Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM), Government of India
“Clean air is not a compliance issue—it is a strategic necessity for business competitiveness, worker health, and the future of Delhi-NCR.”
Dr Dhruba Purkayastha
Senior Fellow, Industrial Transition Accelerator, Mission Possible Partnership
“India stands at a pivotal moment where green industrialization is not a burden but an opportunity and with the right policies, we can turn plans on paper into plants on the ground.”
Mr Sourav Roy
CEO, TATA Steel Foundation
“Dialogue is not a single conversation—it is the long, patient work of building trust with communities whose wisdom is essential to solving our most complex sustainability challenges.”
Mr Andrew Prag
Managing Director – Policy, We Mean Business Coalition
“Businesses across the Global South are ready to lead the clean transition, and what they need most is stable, predictable policy signals—not instructions from the Global North.”
Ms Usha Subramaniam
Country President, Grundfos
“Two thirds of the country’s future infrastructure is yet to be built, making this a defining moment for integrating resilience, competitiveness and environmental security into decision making. Water and energy are often treated in silos, with energy receiving greater attention due to its visibility, while the hidden energy intensity of water-related applications remains overlooked.”
Mr Chitranjan Kaushik
CEO, Ecofirst Services Ltd
“The market is not just ready but hungry for energy transformation, with new technologies from solar films to building-integrated photovoltaics pushing clean energy far beyond the rooftop.”
Mr Sanjay Swarup
Chairman & Managing Director, Container Corporation of India Ltd.
“By moving 95% of our cargo through rail and adopting LNG and EV technologies, we have already saved two lakh tonnes of CO₂—showing how logistics can scale while staying green.”
Mr Abhishek Ranjan
CEO, BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd – BRPL
“Scale and sustainability are not at odds when expansion is powered by renewable energy, smart storage, and rapid deployment of clean technologies.”
Dr Vikas Kumar
Managing Director, DMRC Ltd
“A metro system becomes truly sustainable only when its network reaches every citizen within walking distance, enabling a shift to clean public transport at scale.”
Mr Kranav Sharma
Technical Manager - Industrial Innovation, VERRA
“Carbon offsets are not a replacement for real action—they are a complementary tool that only works when companies first do everything possible to reduce their own emissions.”
Mr Dylan Tanner
Executive Director and Founder, InfluenceMap
“Climate issues are no longer ESG topics—they are mission-critical business issues that demand clear standards, strong policy engagement, and credible transition plans.”
Mr O. P. Sinha
Chairperson, OTBL (ONGC-TERI Biotech Limited) and Director (Exploration), ONGC Ltd
“India is in the midst of an energy revolution, and our success in biotechnology-driven ethanol blending has cut fossil fuel imports while proving that innovation can fundamentally reshape the economy.”
Press Coverage
https://csrtimes.org/world-sustainable-development-summit/?utm
How does the Global South balance the scales of aggressive economic growth with the urgent mandate of sustainable development?
This was the central inquiry of the Fireside Chat titled 'Transformations to balance sustainable development with economic growth – India and the Global South’, hosted during the CEO Forum 2026—a curtain-raiser to the World Sustainable Development Summit 2026.
Moderated by Dr Vibha Dhawan, Director General, TERI, the conversation moved past incrementalism to address the systemic ‘transformations’ required in policy, finance, and corporate responsibility.
During the chat Mr Sourav Roy, CEO, Tata Steel Foundation, challenged the audience to rethink the ‘public good’ within corporate structures. He noted that businesses must look beyond conventional market-based approaches and develop the wisdom to navigate where markets fail and collective responsibility begins.
Mr Andrew Prag, Managing Director – Policy, We Mean Business Coalition, highlighted the shift from burden sharing to economic opportunity, emphasizing that businesses worldwide are increasingly stepping forward as positive actors to translate the 1.5°C vision into economic reality.
Dr Dhruba Purkayastha, Senior Fellow, Industrial Transition Accelerator, stressed that climate change represents a fundamental market failure and that aligning the cost of capital with the scale of ambition in the Global South is essential for enabling green innovation.
As a focal point of the CEO Forum, a special session titled ‘Water-Energy Nexus in Infrastructure Investment Decisions’ addressed the critical intersection of resource management and industrial growth.
Ms Usha Subramaniam, Country President, GRUNDFOS, highlighted the visibility gap in sustainability, noting that energy often receives greater attention while the true impact lies in the synergy between water and energy.
Dr Ritu Mathur, Director - Energy Assessment & Modelling, TERI, provided a strategic framework explaining the rapid growth of India’s data centers and their implications for resource demand.
The panel discussion moderated by Mr Ajay Shankar, Distinguished Fellow, TERI explored operational challenges of the nexus.
Mr Chitranjan Kaushik, CEO, Ecofirst Services Ltd, emphasized that water and energy are deeply interconnected, stating that every drop of water carries energy and every unit of energy requires water.
Mr Prashant Choubey, President, Avaada Energy Pvt Ltd, highlighted the systemic challenge created by falling water tables and rising energy intensity.
Mr Sourabh Mukherjee, EVP - Corporate Strategy & Sustainability, Tata Projects Ltd, noted that the water-energy nexus is now a practical reality in large-scale infrastructure and data center development.
The CEO Forum 2026 concluded with a high-impact fireside chat on technology-driven energy transitions, moderated by Amb Ajai Malhotra, Distinguished Fellow, TERI.
He highlighted that energy transitions have evolved from policy choices into existential imperatives, especially as India pursues ambitious goals including 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030 and Net Zero by 2070.
Mr O P Sinha, Chairperson, OTBL and Director (Exploration), ONGC, noted that India is undergoing an energy revolution with investments exceeding 165 billion USD. He also highlighted the success of biotechnology-driven fermentation that enabled 20% ethanol blending in fuels.
Mr Chitranjan Kaushik, CEO, Ecofirst Services, emphasized that markets are now eager for transformation. Innovations such as solar films and building-integrated photovoltaics are accelerating the integration of clean technologies across sectors.
Mr Andrew Prag
Managing Director – Policy
We Mean Business Coalition
Dr Vikas Kumar
Managing Director
DMRC Ltd
Mr Abhishek Ranjan
CEO
BRPL
Mr Sourav Roy
CEO
Tata Steel Foundation
Mr OP Sinha
Chairperson
OTBL (ONGC-TERI Biotech Limited)
Mr Andrew Prag
Managing Director – Policy, We Mean Business Coalition
The We Mean Business Coalition’s Call to Action are grounded in what Indian businesses are already doing and what they are willing to do, if backed by strong, consistent policy signals. The We Mean Business Coalition and TERI are committed to support the transformation and facilitate leading businesses accelerate their renewable energy adoption, electrifying transport fleets, improving energy efficiency, and investing in low-carbon manufacturing.
Dr Vikas Kumar
Managing Director, DMRC Ltd
Transformative actions by DMRC in the Sultanpur depot, to make it both water and carbon neutral speaks volumes of how water-energy nexus is integral to all maintenance activities related to the rolling stock. DMRC-TERI collaboration ranges from scientific demand elasticity studies, computation of carbon footprint and sustainability reports.
Mr Abhishek Ranjan
CEO, BRPL
The BRPL-TERI strategic collaboration aims to accelerate renewable integration, smart distribution technologies, and energy storage solutions across Delhi's power distribution network. The collaboration focuses on expanding grid-connected solar rooftop PV systems, energy storage solutions, electric vehicle integration, and smart distribution technologies. TERI conducted biggest energy conservation campaigns in India named 'Energy Wise, Energy Rise' (EWER). EWER has covered 200 schools and reached out to around 60,000 students in 2 years.
Mr Sourav Roy
CEO, Tata Steel Foundation
The Tata Steel Foundation (TSF) and TERI have partnered to launch "The Green School" project, focusing on environmental education, sustainability, and biodiversity awareness among students in Jharkhand and Odisha. Since 2017, this initiative aims to foster a generation of "Green Fighters" and has been recognized across several global forums. The collaboration leverages TSF's community network and TERI's expertise in sustainability to educate and empower children for a greener future.
Mr OP Sinha
Chairperson, OTBL (ONGC-TERI Biotech Limited)
ONGC-TERI Biotech Limited is a unique example of how industry and research institutions can work together to translate science into scalable, commercially viable solutions. The partnership between ONGC’s operational strength and TERI’s research capability has shown that technology development must move beyond laboratories and integrate with business models and field-level deployment. OTBL emerged from DBT-seeded biotech leader advancing sustainable innovations. It pioneered bioremediation of oil spill sites.