New Delhi, Nov 2 (FN Bureau) Indian businesses have welcomed the country’s commitments on climate change made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at COP26, with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) saying that it would facilitate industry’s engagement in energy efficiency, green buildings, green products, clean air, and other areas, the CII said in a statement on Tuesday. Describing the commitments as landmark targets to address the challenge of climate change, Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, said India has attained much in solar and wind energy, railways, and LED lights, among others under Prime Minister Modi’s visionary strategies for renewable energy, hydrogen mission, reduction of carbon emissions. “With India on the road to meeting its NDCs, the stretch targets set by him can be achieved, if we all pull together as one,” Banerjee said, pointing out that CII has facilitated annual savings of 15.3 billion units kilo watt hours of energy in 7.86 billion square feet of green building space alone, among many other initiatives. “We would continue to work with the Government in evolving climate friendly policies and assisting businesses with appropriate inputs,” he added.
The industry association has been working on climate action since long and through its centres of excellence, with its sustainability initiatives helping companies to assess their carbon footprint, design environmental strategies and build ESG capacities. According to Sabyasachi Majumdar, Senior Vice President and Group Head – Corporate Ratings, ICRA, India’s commitment of achieving carbon neutrality by 2070 and meeting 50% of our energy requirement from RE sources by FY2030 underlines the Government’s commitment for promoting renewable energy sources. “The increase in the renewable power capacity target for FY2030 to 500 GW from 450 GW earlier would strengthen the investment prospects in the renewable energy sector,” said Majumdar, highlighting that the five-fold increase from the current capacity of 101 GW would entail investments of more than USD 300 billion, apart from additional investments in augmenting the evacuation infrastructure and building storage capabilities. However, according to Majumdar, all this would be contingent on the availability of adequate funding avenues and easing of land acquisition which remains an important challenge in achieving these targets.