Leading Companies Were Placing Sustainability At The Heart Of The Strategy: Dr Mukund Rajan

Mr. Ajay Narayan Jha, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MOEFCC), Government of India, said in New Delhi at the 3rd Business and Climate Summit organized by FICCI, that India “has cut down its carbon footprints and emissions substantially with the help of enabling technology in fossil fuel plants, transition to renewable energy and improved forest cover”.

Speaking at a Plenary Session on ‘India’s Policy and Business Climate for a Low Emissions Trajectory’, on day two of ‘3rd Business and Climate Summit 2017’ organized by FICCI in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India; Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India and the Government of Sweden, Mr. Jha said that India “has been at the forefront of developing institutional mechanism and framework for climate change and had initiated a Plan of Action to achieve the goals of India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs)”. He added that “synergies between the Centre and States were also crucial as States had a crucial role in mitigating climate change.”

Ms. Naina Lal Kidwai, Chair, Delhi BCS Steering Committee & Past President, FICCI, moderated the session.

Dr. Ajay Mathur, Director General, TERI, said that “energy consumption was amazingly low in India and there was a great opportunity for technology leapfrogging to reduce emissions in the country. There was a need for large amount of infrastructure on both supply and demand sides. Besides, new business models were necessary for reducing specific energy consumption“.

Dr. Mukund Rajan, Chairman, Tata Global Sustainability Council, Chief Ethics Officer & Head – International Operations, Tata Sons & Chairman, FICCI Environment Committee, said that “the corporates were undertaking social and natural evaluations to access the damage to the environment and find ways to reconcile it. Circular economy and sharing economy were being propagated to reduce emissions. Corporates were willingly joining skills programs and other such endeavors.” “Leading companies were placing sustainability at the heart of the strategy”, he added.

Ms. Jill Duggan, Director, Prince of Wales’ Corporate Leaders Group (CLG), said that “India has been working on various programs on climate change mitigation and nations could learn from India’s policies.” She added that though business needs a stable policy environment, policy makers should have the flexibility of renewing and revisiting policies. Prince of Wales’ Corporate Leaders Group brings together European business leaders to accelerate progress towards a low carbon and sustainable economy.

This was followed by focus sessions on “Energy Efficiency: Creating a Market for Services and Products”, moderated by Mr. Krishan Dhawan, CEO, Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation and “Risk Mitigation for Business Resilience”, moderated by Mr Paul Simpson, CEO, CDP Worldwide, and a plenary session before lunch on “Emerging Scenario for Carbon Markets“ moderated by Dr Prodipto Ghosh, Chairman, FICCI Climate Change Task Force, & Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Government of India.