India is a tiny country globally in terms of spending on climate change as $32 trillion has been spent and India's expenditure is just one percent, Zarin Daruwala, Cluster CEO - India & SA, Standard Chartered Bank, said during the PwC CEO Dialogues hosted by CNBC-TV18.

Share Market Live

NSE

She highlighted how other countries have given benefits in sustainable finance. For instance, Japan, China and the US give interest-free finance for the first year of renewable projects.

But she highlighted that India is accelerating on this front. "The heartening thing is that it's not the big companies talking, it's even the small vendors, who are conscious that if they are exporting, their ecosystem will be expected to be climate compliant. And they are also thinking of how to have renewable sources of energy, or even recycling of water or many other things. So, I think it's a very good development."

Gayathri Parthasarathy, Lead - FS Sector, PwC India, wondered whether banks could come up with an integrated approach towards ESG. "Can we get an integrated strategy on Environmental, Social, and Corporate governance (ESG) from the banking sector?" she asked. She believes focus on green financing is a huge huge opportunity for the Indian banking system.

Ashwini Kumar Tewari, MD, State Bank of India bats for a quicker transition to green power. "Will continue to be thermal as base power for a while, but need to look at low-cost interventions in thermal power to make that a little green."

"Capital wants to look at our renewable, no one wants to talk about transition & making thermal use cleaner."

Also Read:ICICI Bank is now India's second most-expensive banking stock

(Edited by : Sangam Singh, Pradeep John)

First Published:Jun 8, 2023 8:56 PM IST