No cheating, says UN set high power committee to industries on achieving net zero emissions; Indian majors under scanner

A United Nations set up high-level expert group has released its recommendations to the UN secretary-general at the UN climate talks, COP27, in Egypt on Tuesday while zeroing on weak net zero pledges that threaten to put in shadow global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with limiting warming to 1.5 degrees. The report asked industries to avoid “cheating” on achieving emission cuts.

The report has put Indian majors like Reliance group. the Adani Group. TCS, HDFC bank, Wipro, Mahindra and Mahindra, JSW Energy, ITC and Dalmia cement under scanner, who have already announced net zero targets; as the recent report pushes them to become more ambitious and walk-talk their commitments.

While the report is meant for the non-state actors like businesses, cities and regions; but the role of major emitting countries including India has come into focus with the release of the report.

“While the report does not focus on countries, it is clearly evident that many of the recommendations also apply to an extent for the major emitters including India, all of whom seem to have highly long drawn targets for net zero” said an expert at the side-lines of the meeting to this reporter. “Major emitters need to reassess their net zero targets at the wake of the recently released international reports which clearly underline the extreme climate emergency already the world has walked into,” opined the expert.

“I will have a close look into the report” said Indian environment, forest and climate change Minister Bhupender Yadav on Tuesday to this reporter in Sharm El Sheikh while asked on the report.

India’s net zero target is 2070 while the United States and United Kingdom fixed 2050 as their net zero target and China had announced 2060.

Indian companies having net zero targets, are not willing to commit anything immediately and prefer to play the wait and watch game for the time being. “The report has just released, we need to study the recommendations; moreover we need to see what the other industries are doing” said a senior official when

Some of the key recommendations provided by the expert group – which has former ministers, bankers, business leaders and prominent researchers – includes, owning of climate plans by the leaders in a company or region; need to have a climate plan to be fast enough, 2030 or earlier, considering 1.5 degrees warming limit; stop buying of unreliable emission cut certificates basically ensuring “no cheating”; stop supporting exploration of new fossil fuel supplies; stop removal of forest areas by companies and regions by 2025; regularly reporting the progress and others.

It further says that “net zero won’t work without sufficient money flowing to developing countries (and) …should be reflected in the plans of companies and regions”.

“The report provides a crucial roadmap to bring integrity to net zero commitments by industry, financial institutions, and cities and to support a global, equitable transition to be a sustainable future” said Catherine McKenna, chair of the UN-appointed expert group.

Arunabha Ghosh, chief executive officer in council of energy, environment and water (CEEW) and a member of the committee, said to this reporter that “we have to get serious about net-zero … the recommendation is the non-state actors set out clear targets and pathways but also deliver on absolute emissions reductions by their own efforts”.