{{item.title}}
{{item.text}}
{{item.title}}
{{item.text}}
In 2020, PwC India joined PwC network firms in a commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030. Our net zero commitment is underpinned by a science-based target to reduce our emissions to a 50% absolute reduction of our scope 1 and 2 emissions as well as a 50% absolute reduction in scope 3 business travel greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 as compared to our 2019 levels. Our commitment is aligned to a 1.5 degree scenario which is necessary to avert the worst impacts of climate change.
Climate change is no longer a challenge for tomorrow but a responsibility for today. We must leverage human ingenuity to create a more sustainable ecosystem – one in which we can not just coexist but thrive. While driving change of this magnitude starts with each one of us, what is crucial is that this must be tackled at speed and scale. Businesses, being the most trusted institutions in society, have a responsibility to lead the transition to a net zero economy – and we are committed to doing just that. As a reflection of our strategy, we are dedicated to meeting the urgency of this challenge with defined steps towards decarbonisation – we are taking steps towards a brighter tomorrow.
The urgency around sustainability is a leveler for all – telling us that a greener world needs everyone’s collective commitment and attention. The ownership lies with each one of us. We know that a commitment is only as good as the actions that follow, and so we are putting together a robust plan which will enable us to make the shift. This journey is essential and requires a behavior shift from each of us – but it’s also exciting because it gives us more opportunities to do the right thing.
India is primarily a coal based economy with more than 70% of electricity being generated from coal based power plants. Our conventional infrastructure systems hence continue to rely heavily on such non-renewable sources contributing to high carbon emissions.
As a professional services firm, our environmental impact is small compared with many other industries. But our clients, our people and other stakeholders still expect us to minimize our impact, and as a responsible business whose operations ultimately rely on natural resources, we want to do everything we can. So, becoming a low carbon and more circular business is an important element of our Purpose.
Our commitment to accelerate towards a Net Zero economy by 2030 would encompass reducing our absolute emissions and offsetting the growing emissions due to our growth in the next few years. This is a challenge we are willing to embrace and are taking concerted actions to decarbonise our value chain. Our approach is based on the carbon mitigation hierarchy:
Most of our operational impact comes from carbon emissions generated by business travel and the use of energy in our buildings. So, our carbon mitigation programme is central to our efforts, and we also offset our operational carbon emissions as reported each year.
Driving Behavioral Change:
In-house initiatives :
Commitment to Climate Change :
Broadly, ‘net zero’ refers to the goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (often referred to as carbon emissions) and then balancing what’s left by removing an equivalent amount from the atmosphere. Net zero can apply to a business or other organization, a country or the global economy. The terms ‘net zero’ and ‘carbon neutral’ both refer to reducing net GHG emissions and climate impacts and so are often mistakenly interchanged. In the market the terminologies do have differences when referring to climate ambitions. Over time we have seen carbon targets evolve from mitigating carbon emissions through offsetting (including carbon neutral claims), essentially compensating for emissions through financing emissions reduction projects outside a company’s own value chain, to more ambitious commitments to reduce emissions within the value chain which are aligned with climate science.
Net zero, unlike carbon neutrality, is based on first and foremost reducing emissions, but typically goes beyond carbon neutrality in several areas:
Setting science-based targets to reduce emissions