While the government of India on its part has recently announced the National Action Plan on Climate Change and called the private businesses ‘to do their bit’, India Inc still do not have climate change in their top priority. This is the finding of two recent reports by KPMG and Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM). According to the reports, only a very few firms have a clear strategy in place to tackle this issue.

The survey conducted by KPMG interviewed 70 Indian business leaders who are key figures in setting up the agenda for their respective companies to find out how they are responding to the issues and challenges around climate change.

Only 41 per cent of the Indian business leaders fully understand the impact of climate change on their businesses and have a clear strategy in place to tackle the issue, found a survey by global advisory firm KPMG on Wednesday. About 42 per cent of the respondents said they have a fair understanding of climate change issues and are in the process of developing a strategy to deal with it.

The survey, carried out to assess the preparedness of India Inc towards this global phenomenon, attempted to understand Indian business leader's appreciation of the climate change context, its implications for the economy and their businesses, and their readiness to respond to the impending change.

“As there are no strict regulatory compulsions to comply with or no legal mechanism, which demands companies to report their carbon footprint and how they propose to mitigate it, there is a big gap between good intentions and concrete actions among Indian companies,” said Arvind Mahajan, national industry director, energy, infrastructure and government, KPMG.

But findings of Assocham survey are more stark. “For most of India Inc, tackling the adverse impact of climate change is second preference as they aim for growth and expansion. Of the 180 top firms and 240 employees interviewed, at least 79 per cent still first prefer to take their expansion and diversification plans to logical conclusion while the issue of climate change and global warming comes second,” claimed the study. The global awareness on climate change is far greater. Most companies in the developed world have measured and announced their baseline carbon footprint, and also their reduction targets over 5 to 10 year periods, the report said.