India Business and Climate Summit 2015

Yesterday, I attended “The India Business and Climate Summit 2015” held at the Hyatt Regency in Mumbai. I have quoted several people below from the notes I took during the summit – excuse me if I get something wrong or cut something out.

Andrew Steer

President and CEO of the World Resources Institute (WRI)

The event kicked-off with a video message from the President of the WRI. “Measure your scope 1 emissions because it’s not only good for the planet but also good for your bottom line. Also, look at across your whole value chain and suppliers – scope 2 and 3 – because again, it’s good for your bottom line.”

S. Raghupathy

Executive Director, CII – IGBC

• “We have a moral responsibility to cut climate emissions
• We (India) are #3 in the world – 2 billion tons per year
• Renewable energy has the potential to transform the country
• Cement industry in India has the lowest specific emissions from any Cement Industry in the world
• 3,300 projects, 3.1 billion square feet of green buildings, are built or planned
• Because reducing emissions makes good business sense
• Climate change is a cost saving opportunity
• India GHG program is a platform for to learn from each other and have concrete projects on the ground and make things radically different
• Main aim is to have nearly 200 companies involved and have inventory of their carbon emissions and take steps to reduce their emissions
• Right now 41 companies which includes 15-20% of emissions are registered with India GHG
• Outcome of this program, reducing emissions makes good business sense.”

“As a senior citizen, I miss the clean air and bath in river Ganga. As all of us know that climate change is real, last month in July was one of the hottest months since we started measuring temperatures globally. The first 7 months of this year have been the hottest on record. We’ve also seen the extreme events, cyclones and…there is no doubt about it. This is all happening because the GHG emissions are growing. There is also no doubt that we should do something about it.

In December, we will have a summit where we have to submit what we will do – they have got different problems, developed countries and developing countries. And we in India face lots of problems like hunger and poverty. TERI environmental surveys show that economic growth is important and environmental growth is important as well. What is more important?

There is a growing number of people who want both – environmental and economic growth. Our mission is very clear we have to find new technologies and use existing technologies to reduce GHG emissions. There are technologies available, 4 sectors – power, transport, buildings – we can achieve GHG emission reduction using the technologies available today. Transport is responsible for 23% of emissions globally. This will remain the same, GHG emissions are a part of growth in private sectors.”

“I come from a company that works in the energy conversation area. Clearly, the philosophy of TERI, WRI and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is reducing emissions is good for business. Let me tell you about a study in 2013. We took the average energy consumption per unit of output per six different sectors. One case study that came out of that was between the most efficient and least efficient breweries in the country. Both breweries are in Aurangabad, 3 km apart, same equipment manufacturers, and the difference in energy efficiency is between 21%. We first did this study in 2003 and again in 2013. Firms in 2013 were 30% more efficient vs 2003, but there was still 21% gap in efficiency between the most efficient firms and the least efficient. In Japan, they set up a ‘Cool Biz’ campaign to set all buildings and public spaces thermostat at 26 degrees, and after Fukushima they made it 28 degrees in the summer. The energy cooling load dropped by 50%. Now, during summer, 15 June to 15 Sept, suits are done away with. As energy prices have increased, the pressure to reduce energy conversation has reduced.

Can a company introduce an internal 100% tax within the company? If I pay Rs. 13 for gas then I put Rs. 13 in a bank account to spend on green initiatives. If you start paying this tax, you will take it seriously. There is great potential for this type of voluntary fund.”

“Suresh Prabhu’s first love has been the environment and climate change. We have one of the lowest per capita emissions in the world, but that is not a badge of honor for us. I think a badge of honor will be when we can reduce the overall energy use. A big issue is urban waste. Industry had done a significant amount. The most important thing we can do is to measure and then do something about it. We need to think about an internal tax on ourselves, and this will make us think more about it. The Govt. of India has put a tax on coal. I think this can be expanded to be a tax on carbon. These are the types of big issues we should think about and grapple with. Like the old joke, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Similarly, we need to address this issue one step at a time.”

“In the next few weeks, a very important conference is coming up in Paris. This day long meeting (the summit) will help inform those ‘negotiations’.

Today, the Chinese market dropped by 6%. Financial markets have been integrated by human interaction. The ecosystem has been integrated for millions of years since the planet was born – GHG affects every one of us. Post 2008, the financials markets started contracting. Europeans were more interested in saving banks than saving plant. The economy distracted us from working on climate change.

Look at the intensity of drought or flooding, this has something to do with climate change.

Making less carbon emissions makes good business sense. Mr Godrej, he’s doing it to protect his bottom line but also to protect the environment itself. This is good for everybody – good for business, good for people. You can have both – low carbon growth and development. This is all possible and we can make it happen.

Railways are the single largest user of energy in India – two forms of energy – electricity and diesel. We did an energy audit. We are working to increase solar as it has major opportunities.

Trying to put roof top for solar – solar thermal, putting solar panels on the top of the train and all the energy used in the train for fans and lights, can be powered by solar.

How can it help the railways? Railways second biggest item of expenditure is energy. So we must save energy, it improves profitability and we all see that. This makes business sense and ecological sense. This is a bottoms up approach to have an integrated approach – sustainability, social issue and profit. If we address this challenge, quality of life will improve – air, toxics, if you do this you don’t need so many hospitals, you don’t need so many medicines. Self-motivated action is more important than regulated action. If we can have a water audit…the first casualty of GHG in our atmosphere is water.”

Then. the aviation specific emission factors were released. Here are a few notes on the aviation roadmap:

– Green infrastructure

– Collaborative discussion making

– Renewable energy development

Solar:

2.14 MW in Delhi

12MW in Cochin – making Cochin International Airport the world’s first fully solar powered airport.

– Airline fuel saving opportunities led by the United Nations and theAirports Authority of India has resulted in 190 kg of airline fuel saving per landing.

– Bangalore Airport: commitment to generate 50% of power from renewables

Jamshyd Godrej, Chairman of Godrej & Boyce, spoke “If you don’t measure it you can’t do anything about it. Every ship puts 1000s of tons of grease into the sea. Climate change is, if not the most important issue, one of the most important – specially for India. 

Thank you pointing out the temperature in the room (it was very cold).

A one degree change in temperature can make a huge difference in energy savings. Prime Minister Koizumi, coined a term “Cool Biz” – you don’t need to wear suits to work and they saved billions of dollars in energy.

Japanese employees during the Cool Biz campaign that has been running every summer since 2005. It started off with government offices and was soon adopted by the private sector. All offices made their thermostat to 28°C. This idea was proposed by the then-Minister Yuriko Koike under the cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Initially the campaign was from June to September, but from 2011, when there were electricity shortages after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami it was lengthened. It now runs from May to October. Read more: Cool Biz Campaign.

Shankar Venkateswaran

Chief, Tata Sustainability Group

“Carbon pricing is going to happen. The if question is off the table.

The biggest questions are: What will happen with that money? What will the price for carbon be British Columbia has 30 dollar a ton. Tax goes to middle income tax break, low income. Sweden has 100 dollar a ton.”

Learn more about British Columbia’s tax on carbon. It is considered one of the most progressive and equtiable tax structures as all of the tax on carbon is redistributed in individual or business tax breaks or to low-income people. Read more here: http://www.carbontax.org/where-carbon-is-taxed/.

Shankar Jadhav

Head Strategy, Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd

“Unless you measure something, and report it. Carbonex and Greenex. Samaan platform of BSE for environmental projects.” Samaan will be a portal for companies to browse through eco-projects that are eligible for CSR funding.

“$18-20, could be carbon price per ton in next 5 years. If you’re in a carbon intense industry, you should take note.”

Rajasree Ray

“I can say that we are in the final stages of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC). It will be more than the voluntary goal right now. We will evaluate a market mechanism to price carbon. There is also a Green Climate Fund – developed countries will give 100 billion dollars to developing countries. It has a country driven approach, balanced governance structure. 10.2 billon dollars already there and can be taken as a grant. We also have a national clean energy fund, adaptation fund, and national green fund. 15% of energy is used by 50% of people – 36% of that bottom 50% lives in India.” There is energy inequity in India. The FairConditioning program aims to make energy more equitable with a demand-side intervention in indoor-cooling in India.

Kevin Moss

Global Business Director WRI

“From the 90% of the companies that created the climate crises – 70% of the companies are oil and gas companies.”

ITC shared its goal to go for 50% for renewable energy.  To ban multilayered plastic items. Due to transportation and storage.

Aditya Birla– Himanshu Nautiyal

“When you have a problem in a company you set up a committee or find a consultant. We accepted science based target because it is industry based.”

Dr. Reddys

“Linked HVAC system into the BMS and gave us 40% energy savings

– Oxygen analyzer for complete combustion

– Coal-fired boiler

– Optimization of 60% of carbon is from scope 3

– We need to go for Sustainable sourcing”

Tech Mahindra

“Each employee goes through a test on sustainability before joining. What has the return been? Employee engagement has the highest return and it increases attrition. For us what really matters is scope 3”

Tobias F. Dorr

– GIZ, German agency for sustainability development

-Working in India for 60 years

– 145000 tons of waste every day

– 60% are collects

– 20% treated

CEM

– 3500 projects approved by ministry of environment

– Price broke down

– Use municipal solid waste as RDF

– Guidelines missing

Rajasekar

Executive President, UltraTech Cement Ltd.

– Developed the IES Cement Sector roadmap

– Benchmarking platform like the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)

– Getting the numbers right for Cement Sector

How do you benchmark your data on carbon?

Carbon Capture and Usage: An interesting topic of conversation that came up is this idea of Carbon Capture and Usage, not Storage. This could be quite relevant.

Mahindra and Mahindra

Anirban Ghosh – Vice President- Group Sustainability, Mahindra & Mahindra

“Biggest level of impact is to reduce the distance between the suppliers and us.”

Indus Bank

Adwait Hebbar – Head Corporate Services, IndusInd Bank

“It was tough to change the mindset, people would ask questions like:

How does it matter if we’re printing 50 pages?

How does it matter if we’re using the AC?

So we asked how can challenge that?

Scope 3:

Can we have our board meetings tele-conferencing?

Can Investment bankers fly less and do more tele-conferencing.

Do we give preferential rates of lending for environmental friendly companies? Probably not.” However, just by asking this question it seemed like he was insinuating that in the future bank may ask for your environmental record before giving you a loan.

Jain Irrigation

Dr Santosh Deshmukh

– Largest processor of Mangoes in the world

– 3rd largest processor of Onions in the world

– Life cycle assessment, case studies for Onion

– Our organizational goal is to leave this world better than we found it

– Implemented Jain GAAP

– Advice: do incorporate the impact supply chain can have

Investment, time or money, in climate change mitigation is an investment for posterity. If you are alive, you have power – with great power comes great responsibility.

Warmly,

Dhruv