At present, the notion of “corporate social responsibility” is gaining tremendous momentum. Corporate social responsibility — this is a concept in which business corporations undertake certain obligations to ensure social welfare and minimize the negative impact of their firm on society. One of the main components of this concept is taking care of the environment.
In other words, a new business ideology is gradually being formed, according to which world corporations contribute to the protection of the environment and try to minimize their influence on it as much as possible.
So, gradually all world corporations are beginning to switch to renewable energy sources. Not so long ago, Apple announced a complete transition to renewable energy sources. To this end, together with its partners, it plans to create a clean energy fund in China. The company's plans for the next 4 years to develop about 1 gigawatts of "green" energy, which, presumably, should be enough to meet the needs of more than a million homes.
Trying to keep up with Apple their main competitor - Samsung. After active protests from environmentalists, manufacturers announced a full transition to “green” energy by 2020 in Europe, the US and China. “Samsung is the first Asian electronics manufacturer which announced a full transition to renewable energy.”
It is also important to note that already today there are such corporations that managed to fulfill their obligations. So, after making the largest purchase of wind power in December last year, Google can impress that today the amount of purchased alternative energy exceeds the amount of power consumption of the company's offices around the world.
In the summer of this year, Total the oil and gas concern also announced that over the next 10 years it will build solar power stations in France with a total capacity of 10 GW. This initiative was timed to coincide with the program of the French government #Placeausoleil, within which more than 30 measures for the development of solar energy are planned in the country. Thus, Auchan u Carrefour supermarket chain announced that they will establish on their trading floors about 20 hectares of solar panels.
But it is even more surprising that in some foreign countries, not only business corporations, but also religious institutions began to move to "green" energy. About 5,5 thousand churches in the UK switched to alternative energy sources. As Bishop Salisbury Nicholas Holtam noted, “climate change is a huge injustice that causes harm primarily to the poor ...”. All this only proves more that the fight against climate change is our common problem and requires the unification of completely different forces, including the efforts of the religious class.
In other words, we see that the leaders of various international communities, ranging from business structures to religious institutions are gradually beginning to call for the abandonment of the use of fossil fuels and for the transition to more sustainable energy production. Unfortunately, in Central Asian countries, such initiatives are still critically lacking. The exception is only a few particularly conscious entrepreneurs and international companies present on the market. So, for example, more than 100 farmers from the western Kazakhstan oblast have purchased solar power generators to supply their energy needs. According to IIA “Kazinform”, if a farmer buys “green” sources of electricity, then the state returns 80% of the cost to him.
There is only hope that, looking at foreign experience, such initiatives in the Central Asian region will only grow within the years. After all, there is no longer any doubt about the reality of the problem of climate change. And even more alarming is the fact that for the period of the history of meteorological observations, which have started as early as 1880, 2017 was registered as the third hottest year in the history of mankind...
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Central Asia Climate Knowledge Series are facilitated by the "Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Program for the Aral Sea Basin" (CAMP4ASB)