The phrase 'is essential to creating' is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when referring to something being necessary in order for something else to be created or accomplished. For example, "Teamwork is essential to creating a successful business."
Some of the panellists thought that an inspirational leader is essential to creating change.
The ability of Brussels to "house-train" newcomers is essential to creating the common assumptions that make agreement possible.
He is expected to say that "balancing the books, in full and on time" is essential to creating a fairer society.
This is essential to creating the profound policy shifts needed, for example, to remove subsidies to fossil fuels, introduce a carbon price and generally help markets to invest in sustainable growth.
Bunchy, braided tendrils on a brass tray may hold little interest on their own, but once you spot them again on a carpet, then on a tombstone, then circling the rim of a cup, you realize how ornament, usually regarded as the equivalent of background music, is essential to creating a coherent visual universe.
Innovation is essential to creating a knowledge economy.
Investing in public transport is essential to create age-friendly cities. Older women in particular rely on public transport to make the complex journeys enabling them to juggle multiple roles as caregivers, housekeepers and income providers.
The government of President Mohammad Khatami has said that the return of foreign capital is essential to create jobs for the country's growing number of unemployed and to revive decaying industries.
"We now have a consensus of economic opinion aligned with the Conservatives saying that dealing with the deficit is essential to create jobs and sustain the recovery," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning.
