Climate Goals Report Card: India Inc. Backs Net-Zero in Principle, Lacks Engagement in Practice
As the world faces escalating climate crises — rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and biodiversity loss — achieving targets like limiting warming to 1.5°C requires not just government action, but active, science-aligned participation from the private sector.
On the Climate goals front, India appears to be the crossroads as InfluenceMap's new report reveals the engagement gaps and leadership opportunities missed or taken. InfluenceMap is a respected global think tank that tracks how companies and industry groups engage with climate policy, using evidence-based analysis to assess alignment with international climate goals.
A new report by global think tank InfluenceMap sheds light on how India’s most climate-significant companies and industry associations are engaging with government climate policy. The findings reveal broad support for high-level climate goals like India’s 2070 net-zero target—but also a striking lack of meaningful action on specific climate regulations or policy advocacy.
Corporate involvement in climate goals is crucial because businesses are major contributors to global emissions and have the power to drive large-scale change through innovation, investment, and influence on policy.
The research, launched just as the UNFCCC Bonn talks conclude, urges Indian corporates to move from symbolic endorsement to strategic, science-aligned policy engagement if the country’s ambitious climate goals are to be met.
Broad Climate Support—But Shallow Engagement
InfluenceMap’s analysis of 20 large Indian companies and 8 influential industry associations finds that while 90% of companies acknowledge climate science, most of them fail to translate this into clear, constructive advocacy for specific regulations like carbon pricing or GHG emissions legislation. The vast majority of companies remain only partially aligned with IPCC-recommended climate pathways.
Only ReNew stood out as a clear corporate climate policy leader. In contrast, Coal India Ltd. was the only company assessed as misaligned, though its overall engagement on climate was limited.
Industry Associations Show Weak Climate Leadership
None of the eight industry associations demonstrated climate policy engagement aligned with the 1.5°C goal. While the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) showed relatively high engagement and the best score among peers, others like SIAM scored poorly due to historic opposition to clean fuel standards, despite recent support for EVs. The misalignment between companies and their associations is flagged as a concern for investors.
Engagement Focused on Top-Level Targets, Not Regulations
Indian companies and associations were far more active in supporting headline commitments—like India’s 2070 net-zero target and the 500 GW renewable energy goal by 2030—than they were on policy details. For example, nine companies supported renewable energy policies, while only five engaged with India’s emerging Carbon Credit and Trading System (CCTS).
Circular economy policies, particularly around plastic waste management and vehicle scrappage, also received more attention, possibly due to their immediacy and visibility.
BRSR: A Missed Opportunity for Transparency
India’s updated Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) guidelines mandate companies to disclose policy engagement affiliations but only encourage voluntary disclosures on advocacy positions. Just six companies responded to these voluntary questions, and even fewer met the standards set by the Global Standard on Responsible Climate Lobbying. This lack of disclosure may be hiding misaligned lobbying and diluting investor and public scrutiny.
SOEs and the Importance of Transparency
The report highlights the critical role of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in shaping and informing climate policy in India. SOEs possess the expertise and influence to drive policy innovation, but often operate with limited visibility in the public domain. InfluenceMap notes that low transparency across the board—especially in how companies influence regulatory processes—creates an uneven playing field, where opponents of strong climate policy may be exerting disproportionate influence behind closed doors.
India’s Opportunity for Climate Leadership
The Indian corporate sector shows less outright opposition to climate policy than its counterparts in the US or Australia. This lack of resistance, paired with growing alignment in principle, presents a key opportunity for Indian businesses to step into climate leadership roles by engaging constructively and transparently with the policymaking process.
InfluenceMap has announced that its “India Platform” will continue tracking how companies shape the policy landscape — and how well that aligns with India’s climate ambitions.
(Kirti Pandey is a senior independent writer.)
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