Business and Climate Change in India
 
As per a recent Forbes report, only seven Indian companies are amongst the world's top 200 green energy firms. One of these seven companies is Tata Chemicals (Tata Group is the largest company and the only value based corporation in India). Tata Chemicals actively taps into the opportunities presented by low carbon technologies and assumes a leadership role to transform climate change from a systematic vulnerability to a systemic opportunity. It maps the carbon footprint of the production process to then consciously create a strategy of sustainable manufacturing as a part of its climate change policy. These efforts had led them to be ranked second in the carbon disclosure leadership index. Their green efforts to manage waste, reduce carbon footprint and decrease water pollution has created a goodwill in the market and set an example to its competitors to follow the same eco-path.
 
It is essential to realize that carbon emissions have a huge cost both socially as well as monetarily. A report by McKinsey Global Institute alarms us that climate change puts the Indian GDP at risk, an average loss of 2.5% to 4.5% is expected in the GDP by 2030. India is already seeing establishment of small carbon exchanges in a few of its cities and stricter policies pertaining to carbon emissions by companies. The carbon emissions will be increasingly regulated and priced in the near future. Thus, carbon emissions need to be tackled by companies as a business problem and not only social responsibility.
 
Harvard Business Review states that as a strategic approach to climate, businesses should view carbon emissions as costly and climate related costs should become an important indicator of operational effectiveness. Firms should perform both intrinsic evaluation (carbon footprint in the value chain) and extrinsic evaluation (carbon exposure risk on costs and profits) to study the effects of climate change on their businesses. After carrying out these assessments, businesses should redesign their operations having a long term vision of continuity and well-being in mind. The companies that fail to understand the impact of climate change are predicted to have a higher risk of losses in the future. Thus, I strongly believe that firms need to change their perception on the impact of climate on their businesses. I will be thrilled to hear your insights in the comments! 
 
Works Cited
 
https://www.forbesindia.com/article/special/seven-indian-companies-among-worlds-top-200-green-energy-firms/47991/1
 
https://sustainability.tatachemicals.com/responsible-manufacturing/india/#:~:text=Tata%20Chemicals'%20sustainable%20enterprise%20strategy,abatement%20strategy%20for%20sustainable%20manufacturing.
 
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability/our-insights/climate-risk-and-response-physical-hazards-and-socioeconomic-impacts#
 
https://www.google.com/amp/s/hbr.org/amp/2007/10/climate-business-_-business-climate