CHENNAI: Business Line reported that as the corporate sector “has been extremely cooperative when it comes to emission regulations”, the Union Government is planning to introduce a self regulatory system for companies to monitor and regulate their emissions and put it up on their Web sites, said Ms Jayanthi Natarajan, Union Minister of Environment and Forests.
In her inaugural address at the Business Ethics Conference – Beacon 2012, organised here today by Loyola Institute of Business Administration, she said, “We put our trust in the corporate sector, and we do not want to harass them.” Yet, she said environment protection should be accorded more prominence. If we start taking care from the beginning of every process cycle instead of checking pollutants and emissions at the end of the pipe, we can address environmental issues effectively even before they crop up.
Corporates should step up their CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities to include environmental aspect also. It should be made CSER, rather than just CSR. We must ensure that only developments that live in harmony with the country’s ecology should be allowed, she said.
Pointing out that while a developed country Canada’s (carbon dioxide) emissions were at 20 tonnes per capita, that of India is only 1.7 tonnes, she said India is doing it voluntarily, and is not under pressure. However, she said India should get better. Her Ministry has proposed to monitor pollution control round-the-clock jointly with State pollution control boards. “Currently, there are gaps in monitoring, and we are doing our best to plug them,” she said.
To a question on whether Vedanta Aluminium officials sought the Ministry’s consideration for its alumina refinery expansion plans in Orissa, following rejection of its review petition by the Orissa High Court, she said the Ministry has not received any communication from them.
(Sourced from The Business Line)
(Photo by Rusen Kumar)
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