The report, A Decade of Green Spending: What ₹17,000 Crores of Environmental CSR Reveals About Corporate India, comes at a critical time as India, ranked the ninth most climate-vulnerable nation in the Climate Risk Index 2026, faces increasing pressure to align corporate philanthropy with the country's climate resilience objectives under the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision and its commitment to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2070.
According to the report, environmental CSR spending dropped to a post-pandemic low of 4.4 percent of total CSR expenditure during the financial year 2020-21 as companies redirected resources toward healthcare and emergency relief efforts. Since then, spending has recovered and stabilised at 8.4 percent of total CSR expenditure in the financial year 2023-24. Despite this recovery, environmental initiatives continue to receive significantly lower allocations than long-established CSR priorities such as education and healthcare.
The report highlights the scale of India's climate financing challenge, estimating that the country requires approximately 2.5 trillion US dollars to achieve its Nationally Determined Contributions by 2030 and nearly 10 trillion US dollars to build a climate-resilient economy by 2047. In this context, CSR funding is identified as an important source of catalytic capital capable of addressing funding gaps where public institutions face financial or operational constraints.
The analysis shows that only one in five companies reporting CSR expenditure allocates any portion of its CSR budget toward environmental initiatives. Among companies with the smallest CSR budgets, fewer than one-fifth invest in climate-related activities. In contrast, nearly all companies with annual CSR budgets exceeding ₹50 crore dedicate a portion of their CSR spending to environmental projects.
The report also notes a significant difference between multinational corporations headquartered in Europe and domestic Indian companies. Approximately two-thirds of European-headquartered multinational companies operating in India participate in environmental CSR compared to 54 percent of Indian companies. This higher participation is attributed to stringent European regulatory frameworks, including the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
Although the number of environmental CSR projects has increased substantially, the report finds that growth has been driven primarily by a rising volume of small and medium-sized projects rather than large-scale systemic investments. Over the past three years, the number of environmental CSR projects increased by 20 percent, while total expenditure rose by only 6 percent. As a result, the average project size has remained unchanged at approximately ₹45 lakh. During the financial year 2023-24, only 29 environmental projects received funding of ₹10 crore or more, compared with 22 such projects in the financial year 2020-21.
The report further identifies a significant disconnect between industries with the largest environmental footprints and their environmental CSR commitments. Sectors such as Energy, Mining, and Oil, Gas, Coal and Petroleum, despite having some of the country's highest environmental impacts, demonstrate relatively low participation in environmental CSR. Even when companies in these industries undertake environmental initiatives, they allocate only five to seven percent of their CSR budgets to environmental causes. In contrast, consumer-facing industries including Fast-Moving Consumer Goods, Food and Beverages, and Automotive allocate more than ten percent of their CSR expenditure to environmental initiatives. The report attributes this trend primarily to brand positioning and environmental, social and governance commitments rather than direct alignment with environmental impact.
Geographical disparities emerge as one of the report's most significant findings. Nearly 45 percent of environmental CSR funding supports nationwide or multi-state programmes, while another 22 percent is directed toward Tier-1 cities. Consequently, only slightly more than one-third of environmental CSR funding reaches localised, place-based interventions.
Several highly climate-vulnerable states, including Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Mizoram, and Arunachal Pradesh, receive less than ₹25 per capita in environmental CSR funding. The imbalance becomes even more pronounced at the district level. Among India's 50 most climate-vulnerable districts, 30 districts collectively received only one percent, or ₹106 crore, of total environmental CSR expenditure during the past three years. Within this limited allocation, a small number of districts in Assam accounted for nearly 60 percent of the funding directed toward climate-vulnerable regions.
The report also examines the distribution of funding across environmental themes. Among high-value environmental CSR projects valued at ₹50 lakh or more during the financial year 2023-24, water management accounted for 15 percent of total funding, renewable energy represented 12 percent, and biodiversity projects accounted for 11 percent. Together, these three categories constituted 38 percent of all high-value environmental CSR investments.
Air quality initiatives received only ₹14 crore, representing approximately five percent of the high-value project funding pool. The report attributes this comparatively low investment to the longer implementation periods and more complex impact measurement associated with large-scale environmental interventions.
Emerging environmental themes have also begun attracting corporate attention. During the past three years, ₹243 crore was invested in areas such as public transport, climate governance, carbon Measurement, Reporting and Verification systems, and the circular economy. In addition, nearly ₹500 crore was integrated into healthcare, livelihoods, and education CSR programmes that incorporated water conservation, clean energy, and climate resilience initiatives.
Commenting on the findings, Srikrishna Sridhar Murthy, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sattva Consulting, said India's climate ambitions require every source of capital to operate more strategically. He stated that as climate risks increasingly affect business operations, supply chains, and communities, CSR has the opportunity to evolve beyond project-based philanthropy into catalytic capital capable of supporting climate-vulnerable regions, strengthening ecosystem resilience, and complementing broader sustainability and environmental, social and governance efforts.
Looking ahead, the report concludes that as environmental, social and governance disclosure requirements become more stringent and climate risks increasingly influence business operations, CSR must evolve from fragmented, theme-based funding into a more targeted mechanism for building climate resilience. It recommends aligning CSR investments more closely with industries' environmental footprints, directing greater funding toward India's most climate-vulnerable regions, and complementing project-based initiatives with long-term systemic interventions in areas such as air quality, circular economy, and climate governance. The report emphasises that achieving this transformation will require coordinated action among corporations, philanthropic organisations, and ecosystem partners rather than isolated funding efforts.
The report is based on an analysis of CSR disclosures submitted to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs for the financial years 2014-15 through 2023-24, covering ₹17,377 crore in expenditure across environmental sustainability, conservation of natural resources, and agroforestry. Its findings underscore the urgent need for corporate environmental investments to become more strategic, geographically balanced, and aligned with India's long-term climate resilience goals as the country accelerates its transition toward sustainable development.
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