Greenpeace activists gathered outside Bharti Airtel’s
headquarters in Gurgaon, following the telecom leader’s failure to respond
substantively to specific questions pertaining to reduction in its carbon
emissions and shifting to renewable sources of energy to power its network
operations, inspite of repeated requests.

 

The activists displayed the sign Switch off Diesel” at
the company headquarters as a reminder of the demand made on the leader to
shift.  Close to 50, 000 supporters have already signed a petition asking
Airtel www.airtel.com to go clean.

 

Greenpeace representative
had a meeting with Bharti Airtel’s representative on the above demand after the
demonstration today. Though the telecom giant has agreed to meet and discuss
the issue, they are still non-committal on the demand (3).

 

Bharti Airtel has a
real opportunity to set an example for telecom operators in India by extending
their spirit of leadership and showing that businesses can flourish being
powered by renewable energy sources,” said Mrinmoy Chattaraj, campaigner,
Climate and Energy, Greenpeace India.

 

The company’s
failure to respond specifically to key issues on their carbon and energy
management has left us with no choice but be here and ask them to act on their
professed commitments,” Chattaraj added.

 

Recently, Greenpeace
released its report  Dirty Talking- Case for telecom to shift to
renewable,” which exposed how the subsidy on diesel has been aggressively
exploited by the telecom sector, resulting in an annual loss of around Rs 2600
crore to the state exchequer.

 

The report also shows
how the sector can become a transformative force by adopting renewable energy
for their business operations and advocating for economy wide climate and
energy solutions.

 

This is also a tremendous opportunity for Bharti Airtel
to act on its professed commitments and differentiate itself from other
corporations and the lip service that is routinely paid to the issues of
sustainability and sustainable growth.