In December 2015, countries will gather at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris to negotiate a new international agreement to tackle climate change. As the momentum builds up internationally to facilitate a new climate agreement, the India GHG Program is hosting its annual conference, 'India Business and Climate Summit 2015 - Planning Low Carbon Growth and Development' to discuss​ initiatives to limit India’s future emissions for a secure, prosperous and sustainable future.

Businesses play a critical role to drive economic growth in India. The current scenario presents businesses with the greatest opportunities to build a core set of actions that will define corporate leadership on climate change. Efforts such as conducting a GHG inventory of their operations, mapping of the supply chain, and investments in efficiency improvements maximize profits and generally correlate to improved environmental sustainability in operations, services and products. India’s government is also increasingly recognizing, both, the opportunity and urgency of business action on climate change.

In order to understand how businesses can help to improve this scenario, the India GHG Program is hosting its first ever tweetchat with leading local and international businesses and climate experts.

Follow @IndiaGHGP and use the hashtag #IGHGP2015 to join the discussion with experts from around the world on Thursday,13 August 2015.

Beginning at 5 PM IST  @IndiaGHGP will launch one question every ten minutes. Experts and participants respond in the form of tweets using the hashtag #IGHGP2015. Participants will offer responses in the form of tweets using the hash tag #IGHGP2015. At 6 PM, we will wrap up the tweet chat but you may continue tweeting with the hashtag if you wish to.

Featured Guests

• Namita Vikas - Senior President & Country Head - Responsible Banking / Chief Sustainability Officer at YES Bank Ltd.
• Joe Phelan - India - ‎Director, WBCSD India at WBCSD
• Assaad W Razzouk - Chief Executive and Co-Founder of Sindicatum Sustainable Resources
• Lawrence MacDonald - Vice President, Communications, World Resources Institute
• Srinath Komarina - Senior Vice President, Responsible Banking, YES Bank Ltd. 
• Jyot Chadha - Head, Initiative to Catalyze Urban Innovation, EMBARQ India, 
• Eliot Metzger - Senior Associate, World Resources Institute
• The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)
• Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
• UltraTech Cement
• Delhi International Airport Limited

Questions

1. What are some of the climate change risks that are likely to impact the company’s business and operations in the foreseeable future?

2. What initiatives should businesses and investors undertake in order to minimize climate risk?

3. What climate policies or regulatory directives can businesses engage in, in order to support a sustainable global economy?

4. What GHG emission reduction targets are businesses setting for themselves? How do they track and report progress against these targets?

5. How can businesses secure meaningful action on climate change with other stakeholders like the government?

6. What innovation and technology opportunities, if any, have companies investigated in the past to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and gain competitive advantage?

Contact Sachi Aggarwal at SAggarwal@wri.org if you have any questions. Tweet to us @IndiaGHGP