Nifty 500 cos emit 1 bn t greenhouse gases in FY23, up 5% from FY22

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This is an “achievement” no CEO worth his presentation would be proud of. Data culled from Prime Database suggest that direct emission of greenhouse gases that was disclosed by the Nifty 500 companies – the heart of India Inc – rose to 1.03 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in FY23, The Economic Times has reported. The amount is 5% more than FY22. It is also close to 1.2 billion tonnes recorded by Japan, which is the fourth largest economy both in nominal and purchasing power parity terms.

Predictably, the contribution by different companies is not evenly spread out in the list. The top 10 “polluters” accounted for 70% of the total amount. The PSU generator that contributes 25% of the country’s power demand alone accounted for one-third of the cumulative total emitted by the 500 companies. Incidentally, NTPC is raising installed capacity.

However, it needs to be mentioned that NTPC has been striving to reduce carbon footprint, something that has enabled it to record lower emission per unit of electricity generated in its annual report. The amount of energy needed to produce one unit of electricity – known as energy intensity – is also down.

While NTPC has accounted for 335.7 million tonnes (mt), Tata Steel is in the second spot with 75.5 mt. The other eight in the top 10 are Ultratech Cement (62.5 mt), Vedanta (57.1 mt), Adani Power (49 mt), JSW Steel (46.9 mt), Reliance Industries (37.1 mt), Tata Power (28.3 mt), Hindalco Industries (26.9 mt) and NLC India (25.5 mt). However, the increase in emission by Nifty 500 companies is in line with the 5% annual increase in India’s overall emission which rose to 3.9 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent between January-December 2022.

Incidentally, India’s contribution is 7.3% of the global total emission of 53.8 billion tonnes that year. “The increase in emissions is likely because of high fossil fuel consumption, Coal’s emission factor is high compared to other energy sources we use. While at the Glasgow convention (COP26), they initially talked about phasing out coal and finally agreed on phasing down, in India, it is very difficult to phase out coal,” said Pradeep Panigrahi, head, corporate sustainability, Larsen & Toubro.

The non-renewable fossil fuel remains one of the crucial elements of India’s energy requirement. Some experts attributed India staying out of the Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency Pledge at the recent COP28 to a language that referred to phasing out coal. NTPC is on an overdrive to meet India’s growing need for power and has stepped up coal production from its captive mines by 65% to 23.2 million tonnes in FY23. Continuing the drive in FY24, it doubled production in Q1 compared to the Q1 numbers a year ago.

In its FY23 annual report, NTPC admitted the indispensability of thermal power plants for grid reliability, employment and even social inclusion. “In response, we are transitioning to more efficient thermal technologies while exploring innovative energy solutions like biomass co-firing, green hydrogen production, and waste recycling based on circular economy principles,” said NTPC.

The PSU that powers India said it has adopted supercritical and ultra-supercritical boilers in this country which results in saving of about 2% fuel per unit of power. It also reduces emission intensity by as much as 8% compared with conventional subcritical plants. This raises efficiency levels by about 8%.

Incidentally, compared to levels in 2005, India has committed to bring down emission intensity of its GDP by 45%. By 2070, the country has pledged to achieve net zero.

“We can look at how to improve energy efficiency. This will bring down energy consumption. Instead of using different types of materials, it is better to focus on improving overall efficiency. Pivoting to green energy and improving efficiency is a board-level agenda at L&T, personally being reviewed by the CMD,” said Panigrahi. China and the US remain the world’s first and second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.