Deccan Chronicle 27.04.2013
Indian IT majors pitch for renewable energy
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.
