Climate Change Mitigation : Understanding through the lens of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India.

Abstract

Climate change is a phenomenon that includes global warming but is not the same as global warming. Climate Change is a result of climatic variability over a long period of time, say, more than ten years. Climate change causes extreme heat waves, severe droughts, floods, and other wild weather patterns. Climate change displaces a large number of people and is a major cause of migration. One of the ways to cope with Climate Change effects, in fact, to reduce the effects, is Climate Change Mitigation. It refers to reducing the presence of Greenhouse Gases in the atmosphere. The human intervention in nature’s processes that causes extreme climate change conditions is called anthropogenic climate change. And, climate change mitigation is entirely dependent on human efforts. The reduction of using fossil fuels will, in turn, reduce the carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Therefore, there has been felt a need for the private sector to help address the issue of climate change at this large scale. The companies are increasingly becoming sensitive to the issue of environmental stability and sustainability. Since the private sector is a big consumer of fossil fuels, it only makes sense to start with companies reducing their carbon footprints. It is beneficial not only for the society and the environment but the organizations as well. There are certain business opportunities that arise of climate change related events, that can maximize the profitability of businesses. However, India has a mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility Policy but the question is whether the reduction of carbon footprint by an organization is by itself a complete and sufficient CSR practice or is a pathway to strategizing the CSR practices for mitigating the climate change effects with a greater impact.