93: Mapping India's journey to Net Zero: A conversation with Shailesh Haribhakti

In November 2021 Indian announced its updated NDC - to achieve net zero carbon emission by 2070. And to meet 50% of its electricity requirements from renewable energy sources by 2030. This was a bold and significant moment not just for India, but for the fight against climate change.  India is the third largest emitter of CO2 in the world, though CO2 emissions per person put it near the bottom of the world’s emitters. The numbers are lower still if historical emissions (per person) are taken into consideration. Ditto for energy consumption - average households in India consume a tenth of what is consumed in the US (according to an IEA blog). The good news is that India has overachieved it’s commitments made at COP21 Paris Summit by meeting 40% of its power capacity from non-fossil fuels. As the most populous country in the world, India has a long road to growth and energy demand as it speeds up its development agenda. India’s climate adaptation and mitigation efforts if successful, will be transformational for the world. The country’s private sector has a pivotal role to play towards Net Zero, by embedding sustainable strategies in their operations, identifying, deploying and adopting innovative technologies that accelerate the that journey.India Inc. is being nudged in the right direction by SEBI's mandatory ‘Business Responsibility & Sustainability Reporting’(BRSR) rules, that will see the top 1000 companies disclose their ESG journey publicly for the first time at the end of FY23. The BRSR is framed around three aspirations: Adapting to and mitigating climate change impact; inclusive growth and transitioning to a sustainable economy. My guest on The Elephant in the Room podcast this week is Net Zero evangelist Shailesh Haribhakti. We spoke about the drivers for ESG reporting in India, BRSR, India’s energy sector, changes in how renewable assets are owned in India, ’just transition’, EPA laws, Integrated reporting, challenges for the India Inc. and many other issues around climate change, net zero, and sustainability….Memorable passages from the podcast: 👉🏾 I'm absolutely delighted to be in this podcast with you and conversing with you such a delight. And I'm looking forward to our conversation. 👉🏾 Well, I'm seeking to be a co-traveler on many journeys with individuals or organisations who want to achieve net positive. All my work and all my energies and my thinking and everything that I do is revolving around how can we get people to believe that if they become net positive they will also be much better scaled, very much more profitable and will certainly be green.👉🏾 Tremendous question and I think our Prime Minister gave the world what he called "Panchamrit" which was largely focused on decarbonisation in every which way, through energy transition, through making sure that everybody gets onto the path of reducing the usage of fossil fuels and all of that. And he has followed it up by carrying that conviction into his leadership role at the G20. This is a fantastic move by the Prime Minister and by the country. It just reestablishes India's credentials that we want to be part of the solution, we