Interaction Session with Fitch Ratings Employees on Climate Change and Sustainable Development Goals

On the occasion of the World Environment Day, the Earthwatch Institute India (WII) invited Dr. Sushil Kumar Dash, President FERCC for a virtual interaction session with some business executives of the renowned company Fitch Ratings Singapore Pte Ltd (APAC) on the matters related to Climate Change and Sustainable Development Goals. Every year, the World Environment Day (WED) has been observed across the globe on 5^th June.  This year, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has hosted WED 2024 with a focus on Land Restoration, Desertification and Drought Resilience. Further, land restoration is a key pillar of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world. This aspectis critical to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) #15. It may be noted that, the 2023 Agenda for SD was adopted by all the United Nations members in 2015 where 17 World SDGs were created with the aim of “Peace and Prosperity’ for people and the planet.

Dr.Dash in his presentation highlighted the role of the Corporate World in furthering SDGs across the world in this age of climate disasters. Climate change has affected the natural resource base through changes in precipitation, temperature and extreme weather events. With rising climate uncertainties and thereby the socio-economic insecurities, all sectors of the society such as agriculture, human health, water availability, power utilization, tourism, education, economy etc have been severely affected. Thus the commercial sectors or the corporate world cannot undermine the negative impacts of climate emergency. Now-a-days, each and every country has its own imperatives to do Environment Social Governance (ESG) and or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Through these means, the corporate world can contribute significantly to SDGs. Industries will eventually go for innovations so as to excel in this competitive world. Automation, data integration, building resilience, both domestic and international collaborations will help.  Projects undertaken by major industries indicate less dependence on conventional energy, waste to energy generation, adaptation of green energy etc. Such efforts also reduce their cost in production. The world over, there will be more dependence on ESG compliant industries and by doing so in a transparent manner, there will be more credibility and visibility. Industries should focus on Case Studies, Data Archival, Scientific Analysis, Documentation and Success Stories. Overall, there was a very illuminating discussion which was moderated by Mr. Raghuvansh Saxena, CEO, WII.