Chennai: While most Indian states have failed to achieve their renewable energy targets, Indian IT firms are stepping up their efforts in advocating for a higher share of renewable energy in the country. 

Indian IT brands Wipro and HCL along with global majors Cisco, Google Ericcson and Fujitsu have emerged the winners amo­ng companies in technology sector that provide energy solutions to help address climate change in the global IT-sector climate leadership assessment by Greenpeace International While Wipro secured a 5th position, HCL was ranked 13th in the sixth Cool IT Leaderboard  that pitched 21 technology leaders against each other to find who comes out top in the fight to stop climate change.

This year’s assessment finds that companies have continued to make progress in establishing the sector’s key role in enab­ling a renewably powered economy as more companies increased their own commitment to renewable energy. 

While Wipro strongly advocated for higher renewable purchase obligation (RPO) target in the range of 15-20 per cent and for more aggressive National Solar Mission target, HCL called for higher share of renewable energy by strengthening current regulatory mechanism.

“It is heartening to note that companies like Wipro and HCL are advocating for clean energy developme­nt,” said Green­peace Ind­ia senior campaigner Abhishek Pratap. However, tech companies will not be able to unleash their creative disruption in the energy sector without addressing the regulatory barriers, he said. “IT sector’s progress will continue to be halted by regulatory hurdles until more companies start demanding for a shift of policies towards clean energy,” he added.