Climate change real; govt, businesses, individuals must fight it together: Env Secy

Climate change is real and it is the collective responsibility of government, industries and people to fight it, Environment Secretary C K Mishra said on Thursday.

"Climate change is real. If India says something on climate change on global platform, it is on your (industries) behalf. I believe climate change and global warming should not be government's business alone. Each one of us has a selfish interest in why we should do it," Mishra said.

He said government is willing to provide all support to industry in reducing emissions, which is the right path.

"Reduction of emission is the right path and government is willing to hand-hold all efforts of industry in this regard. However, government and industry need to be on the same page with respect to every stage of rules and regulations," the secretary said, adding that the older generations owe it to the future generations to reduce emissions.

Mishra was speaking at a CAP 2.0 awards function organised here by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to felicitate companies which are committed to environment.

The Climate Action Programme (CAP) 2.0, a recognition programme to recognize business actions in combating climate change, was introduced by CII in 2018 in partnership with DSM, a science based company active in nutrition.

Based on a CII climate-maturity model and using the principles of business excellence framework, CAP 2.0 helps businesses to contract climate risks and exploit market opportunities.

Mishra, after handing out awards to various companies under sectors like heavy and light manufacturing, infrastructure etc., which were committed to the CAP 2.0, also advocated the necessity of development along with environment consideration.

"Development Vs environment is not a sustainable story because you certainly can do both together as now there are technologies for it. There are two critical elements- one is the right technology and second is the resource. Yes there is a price for it but I very strongly feel that this price is worth it," Mishra said.

Several companies were awarded, one of which was Delhi International Airport Ltd which won 'Committed to CAP' award in infrastructure sector.

Awards were given in categories of light manufacturing sector, heavy manufacturing sector and infrastructure.

Sumant Sinha, Co-Chair, CII Climate Change Council, Chairman and Managing Director, ReNew Power, said "Going forward, how companies address climate change is very important and provides a competitive advantage. Also, peer to peer exchange of learnings in the same industry sector is necessary to benchmark performance in terms of best practices."