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Mainstreaming Sustainability in Business Planning and Practices |
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Dear Industry Colleague,
The month
of April recorded two major moments marking that vulnerability of communities
on climate impacts and biodiversity conservation for infrastructure development
are real-world issues and have relevance in contemporary times. On April 9, the
European Court of Human Rights ruled that the “Swiss Confederation had failed
to comply with its duties” concerning climate change and had violated the
plaintiffs’ rights to respect for private and family life. The verdict carries outsized importance because decisions by the court are
binding across all 46 member states of the Council of Europe. In a recent
judgment, the Supreme Court of India has recognised the existence of the fundamental right to be free from the adverse
impacts of climate change. The Supreme Court of India also imposed a blanket ban on the
laying of overhead power lines in an area of 99,000 square kilometres – which
includes areas identified as priority and potential areas for the conversation
of Great Indian Bustard and Lesser Florican population. These landmark
judgements will surely have an impact on materiality analysis and planning for
the corporate sector.
TERI CBS engages with the core issue of what businesses must do to
shape and lead in sustainability. The high-level convening of Industry Charter
signatories
and the interactive session with Indian Chief
Sustainability Officers hosted on the sidelines of our annual flagship World
Sustainable Development Summit 2024 edition, recorded key actions needed by
CXOs and CSOs to accelerate sustainability across the value chain of
businesses. Deepened engagements with policy and business stakeholders are
evident in the technical proposals on why storage of electricity is necessary for meeting
demand round the clock and the details of range of possible mitigation strategies for Net
Zero steel sector.
Actions undertaken by the signatory companies of the Industry Charter for Near-Zero Emissions Ambition
by 2050,
instituted by TERI, are supplementing TERI’s ongoing work on various facets of
energy transitions and industry decarbonization.
Our
Council for Business Sustainability serves as the interface for our research
work to be connected to the corporate world and enables two-way engagement. To
know more on how we can engage with you, please reach out to us. Our Calendar of Corporate Engagements in FY 2024-25 is now available. Your suggestions
and feedback remain a constant source of inspiration for us.
We hope that the newsletter provides a good and
insightful reading for you.
- Arupendra Nath Mullick, Vice President - TERI CBS |
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One of the largest
steel manufacturing companies in the country, with significant global
footprint, Tata Steel is consistently recognised as a leading sustainability
champion in the steel industry. Tata Steel has adopted the ambitious target of
becoming net–neutral in carbon by 2045 across operations in India, Europe and
Thailand.
Given TERI’s work in energy
efficiency, resource efficiency, assessments of renewable energy and
development of sustainability reports, both the organisations have come
together to co-create solutions and highlight the possibility of integrating
sustainability considerations in hard-to-abate sectors. |
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"We cannot achieve climate positivity without nature positivity. The role of public policy is facilitating the pace of decarbonisation. Carbon market and carbon pricing including voluntary carbon markets will become very critical for a country like India"
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As India aspires to become Net Zero by 2070, it will be imperative that the economic and policy choices it makes create an ecosystem that enables the achievement of this goal. The Government of India’s Long-Term Low-Carbon Development Strategy (LT-LCDS) unveiled at COP27 in Sharm-el-Sheikh offers the framework within which these economic and policies choices should be made. | |
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TERI’s Expert Group on Financing India’s Long Term Low-Carbon Development Strategies, comprising members from the industry and the financial sector, aims to mobilise the international finance and policy environment towards financing just transitions in India’s hard-to-abate sectors.
The Expert Group will look at evaluate India’s financial strategy with respect to its LT-LCDS, particularly in the context of Indian steel industry and the adjacent MSME sector, analyse policy frameworks and investments, and share recommendations for strengthening existing policy and regulatory frameworks and identifying innovative financial instruments. | |
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Climate Change impact now part of constitutional discourse
With the Supreme Court of India, expanding the scope of Articles 14 and 21 of the Indian Constitution to include the “right against the adverse effects of climate change”, it will be interesting to understand the implications that this ruling will cast. In this article, Dr. Prodipto Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow, TERI, elaborates on the possible impacts of the ruling on the allocation of resources, especially monetary resources, both, at the domestic and international levels. While the ruling will have little impact on the flow of external resources, Dr. Ghosh states that the main effect of the SC judgment “may be to pre-empt any possible future attempt to reduce allocations for addressing climate risks”.
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GDP Growth should be a corollary of job creation
The recently released India Employment Report 2024 provides a
comprehensive analysis of the latest official data on employment. The findings
reveal that nearly 82% of the workforce is engaged in the informal sector, and
unemployment has increased in accordance with the level of education. Given the
severity of the employment challenge, Mr. Ajay Shankar, Distinguished Fellow,
TERI, shares in this article that the focus needs to shift from GDP growth to
the creation of more productive and better-paying jobs. Overcoming this
challenge will require undertaking two major macro-level decisions. The first
is for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to take charge and prevent real exchange
rate appreciation instead of allowing market forces to determine the exchange
rate. Secondly, more than improving the ease of doing business, the focus
should be on lowering the cost of doing business. The key is to design state
interventions and allocate financial resources, giving job creation overriding
priority. |
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Mobilising Small Businesses to Net Zero: SME Climate Hub 2024 Survey
The Climate SME Hub,
an initiative of the We Mean Business Coalition recently released their annual
survey report 'Mobilising Small Businesses to Net Zero', covering 288 MSMEs across 44 countries and 25
different industries. The survey was undertaken to understand the motivations
and the barriers faced by small businesses in taking climate action. The
findings of the report explore the progress made by small and medium businesses
to reach net zero, drivers that motivate enterprises to undertake climate
action, and the barriers to such action. Additionally, the report also
highlights the challenges faced by SMEs in accessing financing and the
assessment of their knowledge across different areas of climate action |
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Workshop on Upskilling in the EV Value Chain
TERI, in association with the Ministry of Heavy Industries, will be organising a workshop on upskilling in the Electric Vehicle (EV) value chain. The workshop will be conducted in-person at Delhi. | |
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TERI Side-Event at SBSTA 60
TERI will be organising a side-event during the 60th session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) of the UNFCCC. The side-event will take place in June, 2024
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India Net Zero Alliance – Webinar on
Green Open Access for Manufacturing Industries & Corporates
The India Net Zero Alliance organised a webinar on
Green Open Access for the Consumer & Industrial (C&I) sector on 10 April 2024. Discussions took place on key policy and regulatory frameworks, role
of DISCOMs, impact of changes in banking settlement periods and the role of
technological innovation in promoting green open access, and helping realise
its contribution towards India’s net zero goal. |
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TERI at the Fuels of Future 2.0 Conference, Delhi
Mr. Arupendra Nath Mullick, Vice President, TERI CBS,
moderated a panel discussion on Hydrogen, CNG & LNG, and Sustainable
Aviation Fuel at ASSOCHAM’s 'Fuels of Future 2.0 Conference held in Delhi.
Panellists at the session discussed the importance of advanced fuels,
resolution of supply chain issues, and development of new technologies that
could help reduce carbon emissions. |
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In Spotlight
As part of TERI’s ‘Future Unfolded’ series,
watch Mr. Rajiv Kumar, former Vice Chairperson of NITI Aayog, share the
relevance of SDGs for Indian businesses, stating that the NITI Aayog believes
that Indian businesses need to modify their business models to focus more on
social maximisation. |
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TERI Research and Publications |
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Accelerating the Growth of Green Bonds in India
Green Bonds are increasingly becoming an appealing financial instrument to attract private investors towards climate actions. However, unlike the global market, green bonds in India occupy a low share of the domestic bonds market.
This TERI policy brief analyses macro and micro level challenges that hinder the growth of green bonds in India, and recommends measures such as taxonomy, fiscal and policy levers, awareness-building and innovative issuance strategies to overcome these challenges.
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Achieving Green Steel: A Roadmap Towards a Sustainable Steel Sector in
India A Technical Annex
TERI, under the flagship of the
Energy Transitions Commission (ETC) India, worked on analysing the decarbonisation
of hard-to-abate sectors.
This updated version of the technical annex on
achieving green steel provides an overview of the Indian steel sector, options
available to reduce carbon emissions, and the role of resource efficiency in mitigating
the impact of this hard-to-abate sector on the environment. |
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Practices and Solutions: Accelerating Indian Industry Decarbonisation
The anniversary update report of the Industry Charter for Near Zero Emissions by 2050 titled ‘Practices and Solutions: Accelerating Indian Industry Decarbonisation’ is prepared with inputs from the charter signatory companies.
The report compiles 21 low-carbon solutions and practices adopted by the Indian industry across their own operations and the supply chain, covering initiatives on energy efficiency, renewable energy, carbon capture and utilisation, and digital transformation. |
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