India CSR Network

ZURICH: Infosys, a global leader in consulting, technology, outsourcing and next-generation services, has announced its internal carbon price at $10.5 per ton of CO2e, at an event organized by the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC) in Zurich. A significant milestone for Infosys, the price will be applicable for a period of two years and will represent the cost of decarbonizing 1 ton of CO2e.

Infosys has been working towards building a clean energy future and has been on track to meet its commitment of becoming carbon neutral in 2018. The company has implemented a three-pronged strategy to go carbon neutral: energy efficiency, renewable power, and emission offsets. In addition, Infosys has also committed to reduce its per-capita electricity consumption by 50% from the 2008 level and use 100% renewable power for electricity by 2018.

Infosys derived its internal carbon price based on its program to completely decarbonize under the carbon neutral commitment. The carbon price announced is a weighted average of the prices of carbon under the energy efficiency, renewable energy, and emission offset levers. The price of carbon under each lever was estimated based on the company’s past and ongoing investments in the area.

Speaking at the event, Sandeep Dadlani, President and Head – Americas, Infosys said, “We recognize that global warming is the biggest threat the world is facing today. We understand the significance of the 2⁰C global warming limit under the Paris Agreement. For Infosys, by putting a price on carbon, we have further cemented our commitment to become carbon neutral. As a responsible company, we are very proud to be one among a handful of companies in the world to announce an internal carbon price. We hope that it becomes a global movement and helps save the planet by keeping global warming under 2⁰C.”

Putting a price on carbon is akin to the concept of ‘polluter pays’. Infosys now has the option of using the internal carbon price as a basis to internally raise funds from businesses or departments and use the funds for corporate emission reduction programs. The internal carbon pricing exercise itself gave us deeper insights into the various pathways to reduce emissions and their relative merits and effectiveness.

CPLC, launched during the COP21 in Paris, is working with corporates and governments to advance the concept of carbon pricing. The Paris Agreement reached at the COP21 commits to limit global warming to well below 2⁰C. That calls for an unprecedented and drastic cut in global greenhouse gas emissions, transitioning into a low carbon economy and moving toward a carbon neutral economy by the end of the century. Experts believe that the success of such a transition lies in putting a price on carbon. Infosys joined CPLC in 2016.

Infosys is a global leader in technology services and consulting.

The Coalition is a voluntary partnership of national and sub-national governments, businesses, and civil society organizations that agree to advance the carbon pricing agenda by working with each other towards the long-term objective of a carbon price applied throughout the global economy by:

strengthening carbon pricing policies to redirect investment commensurate with the scale of the climate challenge;
bringing forward and strengthening the implementation of existing carbon pricing policies to better manage investment risks and opportunities; and
enhancing cooperation to share information, expertise and lessons learned on developing and implementing carbon pricing through various readiness platforms

The Coalition will collect the evidence base, benefiting from experience around the world in designing and using carbon pricing, and use this input to help inform successful carbon pricing policy development and use of carbon pricing in businesses. It will also deepen understanding of the business and economic case for carbon pricing. In that role, it is developing pathways for use by companies, investors and governments that will illustrate plausible outlooks under a variety of carbon pricing policies and timelines. Finally, the coalition will work to bring together government and business in leadership dialogues that identify and address the most pressing issues, and in doing so, accelerate the use of carbon pricing around the world.

Visit www.carbonpricingleadership.org to find more about CPLC and its activities.