Sunday 14 July 2013

Funding Sustainability

Speaking ahead of the World Environment Day on June 5th. Mrs Chanda Kochhar said "ICICI Bank has been assisting projects and initiatives in the area of environmental sustainability for over two decades. We continue to support initiatives being taken by the industry in this area. As the same time, we will also look at the projects that protect our biodiversity (flora and fauna) as well. As we observe World Environment Day, I have mentioned to my team that they should identify and support at least one project to protect an endangered species in the country to start with."

I am afraid this kind of lip service has caused more confusion to the response to climate changes. The primarily contradiction comes from the fact that Ms. Kochhar seems to speak about sustainability, environment and biodiversity in different tongues, frankly coming from the CEO of India's largest private bank, i am a little worried.

Funding sustainability for banks means funding renewable energy projects and that in my opinion is not a "special" approach because the collaterals the bank demands for the loan is no different from the other projects that they fund. In fact the collaterals with regard to renewable energy are mandatorily solid when compared to any other project that is in need of funds. The collaterals and the project needs are similar such as the land on which the renewable energy project will be implemented, the central government's promise to provide subsidy on the domestic front. Ms Kocchar also mentions the villages adopted and the yet-to-sdopt species, which are part of the CSR program of ICICI. The fact that she mentions these within this Environment Day speech suggests that somewhere in her wise mind she correctly believes that social responsibility and environment conservation are not different topics. 

When will this intuitive belief convert into right language?






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