Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission measurement is picking up in India. Though only 15% companies claim to measure their complete GHG emissions, another 40% maintain partial inventory. These are the trends emerging from the FE-EVI Green Business Survey, which covered more than 200 companies from the top-500 companies in India.
Top 100-300 companies (30%) are more proactive than top-100 companies (21%) and companies ranked beyond 300 (9%) in complete inventorisation. More MNCs (20%) measure their total emissions than Indian private companies (16%) and PSUs (5%). Manufacturing companies (19%) are ahead of services companies (10%). The pharmaceuticals sector leads in complete GHG emission inventorisation (50%).
It?s not clear if they are measuring GHGs as per the International GHG Protocol. Measuring GHGs like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, perfluorocarbons, hydrofluorocarbons and sulphurhexafluoride, which cause global warming, is necessary to locate the sources of emissions and check them. Global warming is caused mostly by carbon dioxide (76%) and to a relatively lesser extent by methane (13%), nitrous oxide (6%) and fluorocarbons (5%).
Industrialised countries are required to reduce their GHG emissions by an average of 5.2% below the 1990 levels by 2012, according to their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Developing countries like India are not bound to reduce their GHG emissions. India?s per capita emission is one of the lowest in the world.
The survey is being conducted by The Financial Express (FE) and Emergent Ventures India (EVI), a climate change mitigation advisory firm, to map the greening of Indian businesses.