Press release - November 18, 2010
New Delhi, November 18, 2010: Indian business houses will save a whopping Rs 48 trillion by adopting clean energy solutions -- this formed the focal point of discussion today at a high powered CEO Round Table involving industry icons Chairman, BT, Arun Seth, Co-Founder & Chairman HCL Infosystems Ajai Chowdhry, Chairman, CyberMedia India Online Ltd (CIOL), Pradeep Gupta and Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo.
ICT based solutions would also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15% by 2020 (1).
The multi-stakeholder event which comes on the back of calls by ICT giants Google, Cisco and Sony for binding EU GHG reduction targets (2) saw the participation of the ICT and RE Industry, policy makers and concerned ministries, key industry associations, civil society and business and trade publications.
The discussions revolved around the principle of decoupling economic growth from carbon emissions and identifying both business opportunities and barriers. The participants agreed that practical strategies and policies are required to enable massive renewable energy generation and allied ICT solutions, which are essentially for the Indian ICT sector to maintain its competitiveness in the global low carbon economy.
“India is today recognised as an ICT innovation hub. It is critical that the ICT sector starts investing in clean technology, to avoid high-carbon lock-ins and the financial risk of needing to engineer a rapid shift away from stranded assets such as coal-fired thermal power plants” said Dr. Kumi Naidoo, International Executive Director, Greenpeace International.
Kumi is on his first visit to India. A South African of Indian origin, he got involved in his country’s liberation struggle at the age of 15.
He was very active in neighborhood organisation, youth work and mass mobilisations against the apartheid regime. It was as a result of his anti-apartheid activities that he was expelled from high school. In 2003 Kumi was appointed by the former Secretary General of the United Nations to the Eminent Persons Panel on UN Civil Society Relations. He became the International Executive Director of Greenpeace on November 15th 2009.
“It is equally critical that the industry is supported by the right policy framework and governance mechanisms to maintain its leadership and competitiveness in the global low carbon economy. Greenpeace is committed to working with businesses which are aligned with the vision of making a de-carbonised economy a reality” he added.
Speaking at the event, Pradeep Gupta, Chairman, Cybermedia India Online Ltd said, “It is now time for the Information and Communications Technology industry to synergise with the Renewable Energy industry to create transformative change on how we produce, deliver and use energy. There is a need for innovation in clean energy technology to make ‘electricity for all’ a reality and truly guarantee India’s energy security.”
While the impact of Green house gases (GHG) emissions from industries on climate change is being recognized, the business potential that exists for smart ICT solutions, cutting across sectors is yet to be deployed significantly.
For further information:
http://www.ciol.com/Greenpeace/
Abhishek Pratap, Climate and Energy Campaigner, Greenpeace India
Ph: +91 98 4561 0749
Email:
Shashwat Raj, Media Officer, Greenpeace India
Ph: +91 96 8686 1974
Email:
Seema Javed, Sr Media Officer, Greenpeace India
Ph: +91 99100 59765
Email:
Notes to Editor
- Smart 2020: Enabling the Low-carbon Economy in the Information age; The Climate Group and Global e-sustainability Initiative; 2008 http://www.smart2020.org/publications/
- Google, Sony and Cisco back strong EU emissions goal http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/Cool-IT/google-sony-cisco-back-strong-eu-emissions-go/blog/26649