• Indian companies provide voluntary report on their carbon emissions
• 61 companies including 28 from the energy intensive sector report on how they have integrated the long term effects of climate change into their financial assessment
• Most significant change from last years’ disclosure process is the marked improvement in the quality of information that the companies are now willing to share
Close to 125 senior leaders from business and industry met at an event to mark the release of the second report of the India Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) 2008. The event was organised by World Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF-India) and is an outcome of a years’ hard work of measuring and reporting of carbon emissions by the top companies of India. The disclosure process was carried out by WWF-India in partnership with The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development.
“The report demonstrates that there has been positive and proactive attitude among the Indian companies towards addressing the challenges of climate change”, said Ravi Singh, Secretary General and CEO, WWF-India, while releasing the report. “It shows an encouraging trend that companies are not only aware of the various threats and risks presented by climate change, but are also becoming increasingly sensitive towards its commercial and financial opportunities. It is heartening to see that there has been a marked improvement both in terms of quantity and quality of disclosures.” He further elaborated that companies from 17 sectors, including nine from high impact sectors were a part of the disclosure process.
Shyam Saran, Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Climate Change speaking at the release said, “We welcome this initiative (Carbon Disclosure Project) as it aims to inform and educate corporates about the urgency to mainstream Climate Change related issues in their work. The National Action Plan on Climate Change released by the Government aims to work on the entire gamut of such issues through its well defined eight National missions.”
Saran pointed out that in order to ensure that energy does not become a constraint on India’s economy growth, it was necessary to make a strategic shift from carbon and fossil fuel-based growth to growth based on renewables and non conventional energy. This is also what is required to deal with the challenge of climate change.
Describing the concept of carbon disclosure and its importance, Paul Simpson, Chief Operating Officer of the CDP said, “It is very promising to see an increase in the number of Indian companies responding to the Carbon Disclosure Project this year. This demonstrates an increase in awareness and understanding amongst Indian corporations with regards to the risks and opportunities climate change presents to their businesses which are increasing in significance year-on-year and we expect that more Indian companies will become engaged with tackling climate change over the next few years.”
The results of the second CDP India Report 2008 represents a continuity of the positive start from 2007. Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Ambuja Cements, State Bank of India and HPCL are few companies that came on board this year. Key findings of the report say that 80 per cent of the companies don’t consider existing regulatory mechanisms as a risk but rather as an opportunity for triggering long term investment in energy efficient technologies. However, these companies do acknowledge that in future, the regulations may affect their businesses. 40 per cent of the companies acknowledge physical risks such as damage, disruption and displacement resulting due to climate change as some of the major challenges that could result in financial losses. On the other hand, close to 75 per cent of the organisations have either taken up or have planned to manage or mitigate risks due to climate change by formulating relevant policies, changing operations, design and consumption patterns as well as strengthening supply chains and shifting to cleaner fuels.
Neeraj Swaroop, Regional CEO India & South Asia, Standard Chartered, India, talked about the role of financial sector for a shift towards a low carbon economy. He said, “Standard Chartered has worked with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) globally for a number of years, and I am delighted that we are sponsoring the launch of the CDP India Report 2008. India is one of Standard Chartered’s largest markets, and we are already seeing the impacts of climate change. The CDP plays a critical role in ensuring that the risks and opportunities associated with climate change are considered by companies and reported in a consistent and comparable way, and gives investors the opportunity to make informed choices.”
The second CDP report has clearly brought out that while all companies acknowledge that climate change has become an imperative, some of them have seized this an opportunity and are already taking initiatives to start monitoring and reporting but this also paves the way for many more companies who need to grasp the opportunity.
