Cement, Energy and Environment

23 CBAM-covered goods accounted for 9.91% of India's exports to EU. To mitigate the impact of CBAM Indian steel and metal companies have increasingly turning to renewal energy to lower their carbon footprint and avoid hefty penalties. However, the demand for renewal energy currently outstrips supply with new capacity not expected to come online until 2026. The Indian government is actively promoting ESG through guidelines like SEBI’S BRSR guidelines and the India ESG framework and the promotion of green bonds for sustainable projects. Hence, collaborative efforts are required among investors, companies and consumers. To support companies with strong ESG credentials by choosing sustainable products and services. Companies should embrace ESG principles, invest in sustainable technologies, and ensure transparency in ESG reporting, which ultimately helps decision-making and encourages businesses to adopt sustainable practices. In July 2023 SEBI introduced a new ESG reporting format which provides data on all environmental impacts including greenhouse gas emissions, water, energy and waste management, as well as details about biodiversity protection efforts. Social aspects like employee welfare, diversity, community development and fair engagement with customers and suppliers must also be addressed. Governance practices including board structure, executive compensation and conflict of interest for management are critical components of the report. ESG practices in India define departure from the traditional shareholder-centric approach that CSR initiatives carry by spending 2% of profit on specific social welfare projects. Unlike CSR, ESG comes up with a more holistic focus on all stakeholders. This marks a significant shift and corporate strategies to evidence-based accountability, and strategic importance. This demonstrates the strategy of integrating ESG in corporations, it is imperative to embrace the best ESG principle as they try to consolidate their footprint in India. ESG investment can improve sustainability, boost economic growth, and strengthen risk management. The scope of ESG factors can vary greatly depending on the industry to industry that relies heavily on resources, and main aspects of environmental factors through their production and output activity. Companies can cause negative externality through pollution and depletion of natural resources with associated determinantal impact on the ecosystem, the climate and human health, among other environmental factors comprising measures to protect and minimise the risk of environmental efforts to conserve resources., improve by reducing greenhouse gas emission, complying with government regulations on pollution, and conserving and managing resources through water conservation and waste management and energy saving practices. Social factors: The social scope of ESG investment related to positive impacts and opportunities that a company may provide for society, as well as management of any social risks these factors can apply generally to society. Affecting how companies use their corporate influence to benefit society and how society in turn view the company and its reputation, the factor may also apply more significantly to social aspects. Governance: Within a company, such as relations between the company and its workers and the implementation of safe working practices and standards with impact on company values. Social policy impact, evolution, health and safety measures and employee relations governance factor. These are related to the structure and management practices of the company; and can be viewed as a commitment to business ethics and proper business conduct. The major drivers of ESG are strong incentives for considering investment for their core business strategies. Many are unclear about the factors related to business performance and associated benefits. The main draw of the ESG factor is that it can benefit companies and society simultaneously. Several contributing factors have driven, the rise in interest in ESG investment. It now plays a large role in mainstream investment. Reflecting the financial market origin of the concept of ESG factors investors are increasingly, demanding ESG-related indicators for the companies. The first driver is that the investor increasingly prefers long-term investment because short-term investment is often associated with high risk. Long-term investment decisions benefit from the investors having more information about the company and ESG comprises a large part of this information, investment now takes place on a global scale and helps investors be more educated and 28