Tackling climate change a top-three priority for India’s company bosses
Almost six in 10 of Indian CxOs (senior executives) believe climate change is among the top three priorities for their company going forward, compared with 42% of their global counterparts, according to a new study.
Deloitte’s 2023 CxO Sustainability report also found that 81% of Indian CxOs said they have increased sustainability investments in 2022 compared with 2021, with 27% saying that investments have risen significantly.
Explaining their reasoning, 53% of Indian CxOs surveyed believe that climate change is likely to impact their business strategy and operations to a ‘high’ or ‘very high’ degree over the next three years.
The Deloitte report also found that 60% of Indian CxOs said that a “just transition” to be extremely important to their organization’s sustainability efforts; globally the figure 46% of global executives.
This means the benefits of transitioning to a green economy are shared, while also supporting those who stand to lose economically—whether countries, regions, industries, communities, workers or consumers.
Viral Thakker, Partner and Sustainability Leader at Deloitte India, said: “Despite the geopolitical and economic uncertainties, India Inc is prioritising climate change and increasing investments towards sustainability.
“It’s promising to see that businesses in India understand the significance of a ‘just transition’ in protecting those who are most vulnerable to both climate change and job disruption. Having the right strategy to ensure a just transition would be critical going forward,” he added.
In the Deloitte report, India’s CxOs cited the changing regulatory environment and increased employee activism have driven their organisations’ sustainability initiatives over the past year.
As far as climate actions are concerned, Indian CxOs are more likely to be focussed on increasing the efficiency of energy use, using more sustainable materials, using more energy-efficient equipment, training employees, and making operations/supply chains more climate-resilient, in comparison with their global peers.
Furthermore, India’s CxOs say brand reputation, addressing climate change and innovation in the way they operate are the top benefits of their sustainability efforts.
On the downside, the senior executives said a lack of talent and expertise, cost and difficulty measuring environmental impact as the main barriers to them implementing and expanding their climate action plans.
Climate change & Global warming an increasing danger
India is one of the nations most at risk from climate change. It contains one of the highest densities of economic activity in the entire world, as well as a sizable population of destitute people who depend heavily on rainfall and the availability of natural resources for their survival. The pressure on India’s water, air, soil, and forests is anticipated to reach its peak by 2020.
The Deloitte report comes as the latest figures show that, since the early 1900s, the earth has warmed up by 1.1 degrees Celsius, with climate change becoming the biggest destabilizing factor across the world. The latest research by scientists at the US space agency, Nasa, found that the planet is becoming warmer and warmer.
Scientists have found that in the last two centuries, the world has been hit by global warming, which increased drastically in the final years of the 20th century and continued unabated in the 21st century. Nasa said that, globally, 2022 was the fifth warmest year on record.
India’s water supplies will be one of the most significant ways that climate change will have an influence on people’s lives there. Water supports life, yet it also frequently causes destruction through disastrous floods and droughts. These shocks will only get worse as the environment changes. See Bracing for a Turbulent Future: India’s Water Economy.
Berkeley Earth, a non-profit group of independent scientists, said 2022 was the fifth warmest on record; for 28 countries it was the hottest year on record, including China, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany and New Zealand. The past nine years have been the warmest years since modern recordkeeping began in 1880.
However, the scientists say the real damage from global warming is the fact it causes extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, floods, droughts and storms. Last year saw some of the worst extreme weather events in recent history with wildfires, droughts, torrential rainfall, snowstorms and blizzards hitting almost every country in the world.
In India, at least 197 people died due to the extreme weather events in October, roughly working out to six deaths a day over the month, the Down To Earth website has reported.
The country experienced extreme weather events on 30 of the 31 days. On all 30 days, some parts of the country recorded heavy rains, floods and landslides; on 4 October 2022 Uttarakhand witnessed an avalanche that killed at least 16 people.
Uttar Pradesh saw the most deaths (55), followed by Maharashtra (35) and Uttarakhand (30). The worst-hit states are in the Northwest and central regions, which usually do not receive much rainfall in the month.
The events also damaged 6,145 houses and caused 383 animal deaths. Uttar Pradesh, with 2,462 damaged houses, accounted for 40% of India’s total.
NASA’s researchers said that main reasons for the warming trend is that human activities continue to pump enormous amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
