Group9_A | SDG 13: Climate Action
Climate Action
Submitted by: Anjali Singh BJ20008, Avantika Singh BJ20012, Manoj Kumar Munagala BJ20028, Navaneeth R BJ20038, Saumya Bhatia BJ20046, Tanya Kapoor BJ20056
Introduction
To combat some of our times' most serious
issues, the United Nations General Assembly announced and adopted 17
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under their 2030 Agenda in 2015.
Sustainable development refers to development that meets our present needs
without compromising the future generation's needs.
Climate
change has witnessed extreme weather, increased air pollution, escalating
health risks, rising sea levels and submerging coasts, warmer and more acidic
oceans, all endangering life underwater. Over the years, it has been an
increasing challenge for humans to deal with the continuous rise in the average
global temperatures. It is expected that if we continue at the same pace, it
will increase by more than 3 degrees Celsius- a grave situation from where
there would be no turning around for humans to sustain life on earth as we know
it.
Under the aegis of the SDGs of UN, the 13th SDG
is dedicated to combating Climate change. The goal's first and foremost plan is
to help countries adapt to climate change hazards and push governments to
accommodate measures and strategies to combat climate change in their national
policies. The UN also wants to increase awareness among global
citizens of climate change effects and the small steps that they can
take in the right direction.
Relevance to India
India is one of the most susceptible
countries to climate change. In the past year, climate change has brought about
a vast swarm of locusts, which caused severe damage to farmlands and floods in
Assam due to heavy rainfall and cyclones hitting India's eastern and western
coasts. India's average normal temperature has risen by 0.7 degrees Celsius in
the past 118 years.
Unfortunately, India has also played its part
in bringing this upon itself. It is the world's third-largest carbon emitter
and contributes to approximately 7% of the global emissions. The majority of
them are due to India's high dependence upon coal for its energy requirements,
the combustion of which is responsible for over 9 million deaths globally.
These extreme events indicate the urgent need
to take up climate action, or else we will be facing an increase of 4.4 degree
Celsius in our country's average temperature by the end of this century.
To tackle climate change, India
joined the Paris Agreement in 2015, and under the Nationally Determined
Contributions, it has majorly targeted to
·
"Reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to
35% by 2030 as compared to the 2005 levels."
·
"Create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3
billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent through additional forest and tree
cover by 2030."
·
"Increase the share of non-fossil fuel-based
electricity to 40% by 2030."
Independent assessments show that India is on
the path of reducing carbon emissions and increasing renewable energy
sources. India was ranked among the top 10 countries in the Climate Change
Performance Index of 2020.
But there has been little achievement towards
improving the carbon sink, and a proper strategy needs to be adopted. Recently,
the Environment Ministry constituted an Apex Committee for Implementation of
the Paris Agreement to ensure that it is on the right track to achieve its
targets. India needs to improve its efforts to meet all the commitments,
which will slow down climate change.
Business
implications and responses
Among most
APAC and EMEA businesses, climate change is considered one of the
prioritized SDGs. In this regard, a survey suggested that almost half of the
companies explore how their organizations' sustainability
goals can match the said SDG.
The
Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) report states that a group of
the world's most giant corporations with a combined total capitalization of $17
trillion values the climate risk on their businesses at almost $1 trillion
within the next five years. The risk is posed on all fronts, namely:
1. Risk due
to natural calamities
The
increasing frequency of extreme weather events such as storms, floods,
droughts, and heatwaves hampers business continuity and causes
financial and physical damage. Droughts and other extreme weather patterns may
cause a shortage of crops or raw materials for food, apparel, and other
products. Due to increased risk, insurance costs have been on the rise as well.
2. Lack of
availability of resources
It is
expected that non-renewable natural resources will deplete soon, running some
industries out of business. Further, the rising cost of electricity and
transportation increases supply chain costs, impacting companies
worldwide.
3. Changes
in consumer behavior and increasing public pressure
Consumers
are becoming increasingly aware of sustainable goods and prioritizing them
more. As the
public is growing awareness of climate change, there's increasing pressure on
companies. There has been a surge in legal cases against fossil
fuel companies, holding them accountable for climate change's damaging effects.
4. Changes
in regulations
Companies
that produce a high level of emissions will be affected the most by
governments' SDG 13 goals. There's already a shift to renewable resources by energy
companies.
In India, we have
seen various companies rise up to this challenge. One leader in this space has
been ITC. ITC is a water positive, carbon positive, and solid waste recycling
positive company for over a decade now. The company derives 41% of the total energy requirements from
renewable sources. It has also launched the 'Green Buildings' movement in India
under which it has LEED platinum-certified all of its hotels. The company has also significantly scaled up its
afforestation program over the years.
Apart from this, Asian Paints has also shown the path in
this area. The company has drafted a water vision under which they have
developed rooftop rainwater harvesting units and has undertaken construction
activity to increase capacity for surface water storage. They have used 42
million electricity units from renewable sources and have pledged to shift
towards them more aggressively in the future.
While companies understand the importance of shifting their ways, there is a general lack of will to devote themselves explicitly.
The reasons are quite obvious. It is a somber reality that businesses are
profit-making entities, and incorporating business practices that cater to the
fulfillment of the said SDG is not mainstream and requires extensive
effort, capital, and resources to develop complete business solutions.
Thus, it
is challenging for a handful of companies to single-handedly incorporate SDGs in
their business practices as changing the way as it requires expensive new
technologies, and no company wishes to face losses by doing so and face the
risk of being run out of business by their competitors.
Many businesses have
concurred that the government's opaque regulatory policies mostly
pose hurdles as, without regulations, the companies will have a
lackadaisical approach towards sustainable climate policies.
Analysis and the suggested path
ahead
The
issue of climate change is intricately linked to almost everything we do as a
society. There has been a paradigm shift
in consumer behavior brought upon by increasing awareness amongst the people,
changes in regulations, and some born out of necessity.
This
shift has throttled some industries' growth, like traditional energy companies
relying upon non – renewable resources. While
this is something we all can see on the face of the issue, the actual
impending doom will be for industries that will not see this coming, like fast
fashion, plastics, and animal husbandry. If they do not work fast enough to
keep up with the trend, they shall no longer stay in business.
However,
not everything has been gloomy for businesses. Due to a shift in demand,
several industries like EV, renewable energy, etc., have seen an acceleration
in their growth.
However,
on a broader level, all businesses have changed their internal workings and the
way they interpret resources, especially natural ones. The one central resource
that has been on the rise for all companies is their 'carbon credit,' a permit
that allows them to emit certain greenhouse gases. Not just that, they can even
sell off their unused credits to another company, essentially making this the
real asset moving forward into the world of stricter regulations.
Another
parameter named carbon disclosure project score has come into the picture that
discloses its climate-change initiatives' level of reporting. It is essentially
like the credit rating of companies for their good deeds toward the
environment.
Companies
now need to shift towards triple bottom lines, namely social, environmental, and financial, and
focus on all 3 Ps - the people, profits, and planet.
However, this shift will not be
done only by the company's will, but the government will have to rise to the
challenge to become an exemplary leader fighting against climate change.
Based on the last few decades, governments of
various countries have discussed and signed pacts to take decisive actions to
prevent and restrict their damage to the environment. To achieve the Paris
agreement goals, the Indian government has set ambitious goals and took strong
measures. The steps' impact could be deemed as successful as India is the only
country among theG20, which is on track to achieve the Paris Agreement Goals
and, in fact, in certain aspects, beyond what the Paris agreement mentions.
India's emission and projections for
the Paris agreement
India has worked across various sectors such
as energy, automobile, waste management, etc. It has increased its renewable
energy output to 87 GW. The government banned all
the vehicles in the BS-IV segment and went ahead with BS-VI norms, entirely skipping BS V, in order to expedite its
curbing of emissions. For
faster adoption of electric vehicles, India has allocated 10000 crores for
advancing electric mobility.
Not just this, they are determined to achieve
a lot more. Indian Railways has announced to target net-zero carbon emissions
by 2030 by electrifying its rail network.
However, this fight should not end here. In
our humble opinion, our government can do a lot more. It can work on a various
aspect such as increasing its renewable energy capacity,
India should try to invest in solar
power extensively for the agricultural sector to provide electricity. This
could be done by pricing them at affordable levels, which can help farmers with
additional income. On the other hand, India's increased coal production should
be slowed down and replaced by renewable energy.
The government's subsidies for EVs have not
been sufficient to boost people. It should focus on building infrastructure and
raising awareness.
On a global scale, countries need to change
the regulations based on their progress every five years. An intense review is
necessary as it as is assessing the country's performance. Moreover, developed
countries should help poorer nations by providing funds to tackle this issue. One of the critical issues is that of the
goal of joint mobilization of $100 billion annually by 2020 to cater to the
needs of developing countries
But this fight is far from over, and there
are many obstacles that India, and the world, will have to face to achieve
success against this mammoth vice. The next few years will be the deciding and
the most demanding years to see the impact of our efforts.
References
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/unfcc-cop-climate-change-summit-6526217/
https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/india-progress-climate-pledge-2019-ib.pdf
https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/india/
CDP_India_Report_2019.pdf (rackcdn.com)
Global trends in climate change litigation: 2019 snapshot, LSE, July 2019
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Goal-13.pdf
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/global-climate-change-what-you-need-know
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/09/climate-change-costs-us-economy-billions-report/
Asian Paints
https://www.asianpaints.com/sustainability/pdf/Sustainability%20Report-2019-20.pdf
ITC
https://www.itcportal.com/sustainability/sustainability-report-2019/sustainability-report-2019.pdf
Accenture Strategy
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/PDF-114/Accenture-Denmark-Statutory-Sustainability-Fiscal-2019-v1.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjF1bqwlMHtAhVXILcAHc41CFkQFjALegQIBhAB&usg=AOvVaw0FOnojju6i5YgterE5t-sS
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