Businesses in India continue to face significant challenges in their journey towards net-zero emission, with 24 percent citing the complexity of the required transformation, 25 percent pointing to the lack of talent with expertise implementing net-zero initiatives and 23 percent specifying limited resources to support net-zero initiatives.
These findings are according to a new commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Amazon and The Climate Pledge, which unveils insights on the state of collaboration and climate action by organisations in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
While over 2 in 3 (71 percent) businesses in India (and 70 percent of firms across APAC) identify collaboration as critical to clearing these roadblocks and achieving their net-zero goals, 63 percent say the lack of access to peer networks and cross-sector communities is a top challenge impeding climate collaboration.
Lack of access to best practices and learning platforms (31 percent), lack of awareness or knowledge of partner organisations or initiatives (31 percent) and lack of a dedicated budget to support the development of decarbonising technologies and services (27 percent) are the other key factors impending progress on the emission reduction front.
The study also found that businesses in India seek to accelerate collaboration most in the areas of renewable energy (52 percent), nature-based solutions (43 percent) and decarbonising transport and logistics emissions (41 percent) – sectors requiring significant innovation, investment and policy support to develop.
Through deeper collaboration, businesses in India aim to realise benefits including improving sustainability analyst ratings or investor ESG assessments (83 percent), influencing greener policy outcomes in key markets (82 percent), and increasing the company’s presence among partner organisations and peers (77 percent).
“This new study reinforces the need for collaborative action and sheds light on the challenges that companies continue to face when it comes to climate action,” said Abhinav Singh, Director – Customer Fulfilment, Supply Chain and Global Specialty Fulfilment, Amazon India.
According to the study, about a third of businesses in India (29 percent) shared that engaging with ecosystem partners on a strategic level is part of their company’s approach to environmental sustainability going forward.
Of these partnerships, businesses in India prioritise collaborations with technological partners to engage more deeply in strategic transformation projects (74 percent), corporate alliances to participate in more industry-wide activities (65 percent), and external partnerships to advance specific sustainability-related initiatives (55 percent).
Across APAC, early adopters of collaboration were more likely to already have reaped benefits around surpassing regulatory demands (41 percent), and are less predisposed to challenges tied to the lack of a shared resource pool (16 percent) as compared to laggards (30 percent and 26 percent respectively).
In 2019, Amazon and Global Optimism co-founded The Climate Pledge, a commitment to reach net-zero carbon by 2040 — 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement. The Pledge now has more than 375 signatories worldwide, including Infosys, HCL, Mahindra Logistics, Greenko, UPL, IBM, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Unilever, Visa and more.
Signatories to The Climate Pledge agree to measure and report greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis, implement decarbonisation strategies in line with the Paris Agreement through real business changes and innovations, as well as neutralise any remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent, and socially beneficial offsets to achieve net-zero annual carbon emissions by 2040.
