India inc. will have to monitor, report and get their emissions externally verified and strengthen strategic and operational actions on mitigation voluntary emission intensity reduction target by 2020, since industries would be subject to individual carbon emission caps or sectoral energy benchmarks, says the joint study of ASSOCHAM and E&Y on ‘Reducing Carbon Footprint in the Power Sector’.

The study points out that India’s greenhouse gas emissions increased by 58 per cent from 1994-2009 from 1.2 billion to 1.9 billion tones, primarily resulting from coal based power sector that nearly doubled its share in emissions. The power sector accounted for 719.30 million tones of emission until recently as against 355.03 million tones in 1994, which represents a growth of around 102 per cent.

The Indian power sector is well poised for significant growth in the coming few decades. India has 10 per cent of the world’s coal reserves, and it plans to add 78.7 GW of the power generation capacity during the five years ending March 2012, with most of it emanating from coal. The growth in the power sector would inevitably result in the expansion of the carbon footprint in the sector.

As per projections, India’s GHG emissions per-capita emissions would still be half the global average. However, the shift in energy profile from fossil fuel-based carbon intensive sources carbon and sustainable trajectory. Investments and initiatives in the upcoming new technologies for energy-efficient power generation and the loss reduction in subjected to climate change regulatory norms. Coal gratification and demand side management initiatives would emerge as the most attractive technologies and shall receive immediate attention, concludes the study.

In order to comply with upcoming climate regulations and achieve growth in a low carbon sustainable trajectory, Indian industries would also have to reduce their carbon footprints significantly, adds the study.

It, however, emphasizes that individual companies need to strengthen their endeavor to increase the efficiency of their processes, explore alternative fuel usage and strategize the investments in cleantech. Climate change and regulations around it impact all the basic drivers of business, such as revenue generation, cost reduction, regulatory compliances and managing stakeholders’ expectations.

This, thus, gives an opportunity to more efficient companies to act proactively with a well laid down strategic direction across all the domains of business, creating a significant gap between their performance levels vis-à-vis those of the other companies whose approach is more on how to somehow comply with these regulations.

The next exhibit represents how the response to climate change and its regulations are required to be program-managed right from the board level, down across almost all functions of business to the operating levels.

Releasing its findings ASSOCHAM Secretary General, Mr. D.S. Rawat said that one may appreciate that earning carbon revenues through the route of the clean development mechanism (CDM), wherein some of the Indian companies, primarily in the private sector have done quite well, is not the only opportunity that imminent climate change regulations bring for Indian industries.

The larger opportunity lies around developing a proactive climate change strategy and driving it down various levels and functions in order to establish a sustainable business model around these regulations.

This will crate a key differentiator between leading organizations as well as others in a carbon constrained economy. It is very encouraging to note that some of the leading Indian business houses and especially those in carbon intensive sectors such as the thermal power sector or the steel sector have already embarked upon such a journey.

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