New Delhi: Three Adani Group companies have lost their place in the list of “companies taking action” to cut down on emissions, as per the United Nations-backed Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a global body that helps businesses set emission reduction targets, reported Bloomberg on May 9.
Adani Green, Adani Transmission Ltd. and Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd have lost the climate group’s endorsement.
This could be “a blow to the industrial conglomerate’s attempt to reposition itself as a leader of India’s energy transition”, Bloomberg reported.
SBTi’s approval for investments
The SBTi, which helps businesses set ambitious emissions reduction targets in line with the latest climate science, is a collaboration of several bodies including the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). As per their website, the SBTi’s goal is “to provide companies worldwide with the confidence that their climate targets are supporting the global economy to halve emissions by 2030, and achieve net-zero before 2050”.
“The SBTi carried out an internal assessment based on publicly available and submitted information and concluded that the involved companies are not in conformity” with the initiative’s standards and policy requirements, an SBTi spokesperson told Bloomberg by email.
Adani Green, Adani Transmission Ltd. and Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd are the three Adani companies that have lost the climate group’s endorsement. Two Adani companies – Ambuja Cements Ltd. and ACC Ltd. – have SBTi validated near-term targets, and retained their place on the list, reported Bloomberg.
Many investors looking to invest in sustainable projects often look for SBTi’s approval, Bloomberg reported. Stocks bearing the Adani name, the report said, had appeared in more than 500 ESG funds in early February. However, a filing revealed that Adani was using stock from its Green companies as collateral to finance its controversial Carmichael coal mine in Australia that same month.
Also read: Adani Green Energy to Review Rs 10,000 Crore Capex Plan
Justify exclusion, says Adani Group
The latest delisting of the three Adani companies by the SBTi could be a setback for the Group.
The Adani Group is betting big on green energy. Last year there were reports that Gautam Adani, the chairman of the Adani Group, planned to invest USD 100 billion in green energy projects over the next decade. The Adani Group had also announced last year that they would build three giga factories to manufacture solar modules, wind turbines, and hydrogen electrolyzers as part of its USD 70 billion investment in clean energy by 2030.
The Adani Group said it had asked the SBTi to justify the exclusion and was “optimistic” that the SBTi would “review and reverse its decision”, Bloomberg reported.
The three companies are not involved in the exploration, extraction, mining and/or production of oil, natural gas, coal or other fossil fuels, a spokesperson for the Group told Bloomberg. They are also “publicly listed independent companies” and have been “working on preparing their low carbon transition plans” after committing to SBTi, as per the report.
However, there have been reports of local people protesting Adani Green projects (such as this one in Rajasthan, alleging that their land was forcibly taken for the projects).
Bloomberg reported that SBTi has removed at least 16 other companies too from its list, according to its website following an update to the organisation’s fossil fuel policy, which excludes companies with any “direct involvement in exploration, extraction, mining and/or production of oil, natural gas, coal or other fossil fuels.”