ANNOUNCEMENTS
Countries across the globe are facing severe threat from climate change and India has also been affected by it. Climate change events like floods, droughts, extreme weather events, heat waves cause a major impact on social and economic conditions of a country. It has become evident from extensive studies that climate change and economy are inextricably linked. World Bank has estimated a 2.8% decline in India’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) by 2050. Deloitte in one of its study estimates that an emission pathway at 3 degree temperature increase could cause an yearly loss of 3% of GDP by 2050. The same study highlights that even in the best-case scenario all the commercial sector of the India’s economy will be highly affected by the climate-related changes. The sector highly impacted would be manufacturing, services, construction, retail and tourism and transport and these sectors would experience an annual average loss in terms of value addition to GDP of “more than US$1.5 trillion per year”. Banks need to align their business practice with country NDC and net-zero targets. I did an analysis of 5 largest Indian Banks by market capitalization (5 public and 1 private) on the BSE as on March 31, 2022. Banks were ranked on the selected 10 KPI to measure their climate-risk readiness, based on the publically disseminated information.
Keywords: Sustainability Reporting, TCFD, climate-risk and opportunities, emissions, Scope 3 emissions.
