THE BUSINESS OF SUSTAINABILITY

Indian industry is adopting environment, social and governance (ESG) practices on a war footing, as India prepares to meet its COP 26 commitments. But this path is not strewn with roses. A BW Businessworld ground report

- Urvi Shrivastav

THE NOVEMBER 2021 Conference of Parties (COP 26) for the UN Climate Change Conference made waves on many counts, among them tearful speeches, India's refusal to accept the original text, pledging “phasing out” of coal and the commitments made to cut back carbon emissions to net zero. Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a commitment to bring down India's carbon emissions to net zero by 2070 at the Glasgow meet.

The United States of America and the European Union aim to hit net zero in carbon emissions by 2050. China targets net zero carbon emissions by 2060. So what exactly are net zero emissions? It is just another expression for being carbon neutral, or for not adding to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. On the ground, these commitments to combat climate change necessitate that corporate enterprises reorient their production processes to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions and adopt sustainable business practices.

Many big-wigs among India Inc. have already announced eliminating greenhouse gas emissions completely, among them Reliance Industries (RIL), ITC, the Adani Group, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services and the government-owned Indian Railways. Reliance Industries will go carbon-free by 2035. It will contribute to 100 Giga Watts (GW) of India's target of generating 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030. Ditto for diversified business conglomerate ITC, which has announced its plans to meet 100 per cent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2030. The Indian Railways, one of the biggest spenders on energy, also plans to become the world’s first net-zero carbon emitting railway network by the year 2030.