New Delhi: Three Adani-owned companies — Adani Green Energy Ltd, Adani Transmission and Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone — were Tuesday removed from the United Nations-backed Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) for their involvement in mining of natural gas and expanding the group’s use of fossil fuels.
The action was taken after a non-profit Eko (formerly SumOfUs) in collaboration with campaign group Market Forces sent a letter to the UN Race to Zero, a global climate change campaign, demanding the removal of the three companies.
In their letter, the two bodies had listed several reasons for the removal, including Adani group’s support of expansion of fossil fuels through investment in coal mining projects such as the Carmichael project in Australia, and operating India’s biggest coal import terminal in Mundra, Gujarat.
“Despite its carbon neutral commitments Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone intends to increase the amount of coal it transports, and plans to build new coal and LNG terminals,” the letter, available online, said. “The Adani Group is the biggest private developer of new coal in the world according to Global Energy Monitor. Adani is planning at least 11 massive new thermal coal mines across India. The sum of the known extractable coal reserves Adani is developing is over 6 billion tonnes, which would create 10130 mt of CO2 emissions when extracted and burned.”
The conglomerate, the letter said, also plans to expand its gas imports and develop new infrastructure in 56 districts across India.
It added that Adani group had also proposed in 2021 to build a $4 billion coal-to-polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant at Mundra, which will use an estimated 3.1 Million Tonnes Per Annum (mtpa) of imported coal, including 1 mtpa of thermal coal. However, the ₹34,000-crore project was suspended in March this year.
Both SBTi — which aims to guide companies and financial institutions to reduce emissions and promote best practices to meet net-zero targets — and Business Ambition for 1.5°C campaign are part of the UN’s Race to Zero campaign.
In an email response to Eko and Market Forces’ letter, a copy of which was sent to ThePrint, the SBTi’s impact team wrote: “Following an internal assessment, Adani Green Energy Ltd, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited, and Adani Transmission Limited will be removed from the SBTi website and added to this list of companies removed in accordance with the SBTi’s updated Fossil Fuels Policy.”
Two other entities under the Adani Group — Ambuja Cement Ltd and ACC Limited — continue to be members of the SBTi initiative. Their letter, however, stated that these “will be monitored closely”.
In a statement to ThePrint, the Adani Group spokesperson said: “We are disappointed with the SBTi’s decision as we are confident that all three companies are in compliance with the stated policy.”
“We have asked the SBTi for a justification for the exclusion from the ambition list. We remain optimistic that, on fair review, the SBTi will review and reverse its decision,” it added.
What is SBTi
Set up in 2015 as a collaboration between the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature, SBTi is also the leading partner of the Business Ambition for 1.5°C campaign, rallying companies to set net-zero science-based targets in line with the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal.
Under the SBTi’s policy on fossil fuel companies, a company “with any level of direct involvement in exploration, extraction, mining and/or production of oil, natural gas, coal or other fossil fuels, irrespective of percentage revenue generated by these activities” cannot commit to the SBTi.
Currently, the initiative has roughly 5,000 (4961) companies taking action, 2,602 companies with science-based targets, and 1,781 companies setting net-zero commitments.
Currently, 138 Indian companies are a part of the initiative. Of these, 59 companies have approved targets, including companies such as Wipro, Airtel, Flipkart, Godrej among others.
This article has been updated to include Adani Group’s response.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
Also read: Don’t see why Haifa Port won’t work well, Adani Group looking for more projects: Israel envoy