The Qing Waste Water Treatment Plant in Beijing that supplied recycled water to the Olympic Lake, near the Olympic stadiums. Over half of Beijing’s waste water is reused. (AP)

Are businessmen in Bengal doing enough to counter climate change? It doesn’t seem so going by the results of a recent survey by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

A questionnaire sent to 160 business houses in the state, covering the major industrial sectors, saw 97 per cent admitting that climate change is a serious issue and could affect their income. But when it came to remedial measures, the business heads blamed everything except their own inaction.

While about a third of the respondents made the lack of technical and financial resources, 20 per cent took shelter behind the excuse that there is no policy compulsion to act. More than half, however, said no when asked whether they are willing to pay more water tax to reduce consumption of water and encourage reuse and recycling.

Five out of six businessmen felt in the long run, market forces would drive efforts to preserve the environment.

“Awareness on environmental issues in the business community has increased over the years but we have to admit that neither the companies nor the government sectors are doing enough,” said Rajib Singh, the secretary-general of the ICC.

Environmentalists also feel that many industries are paying lip service to green issues while continuing to pollute.

A recent report by voluntary action groups Nagarik Mancha and Nespon called Carbon Banijya (carbon business) accuses industries of procuring the licence to pollute in the name of undertaking “clean development mechanism (CDM)”.

“The state has allowed 23 CDM projects. Many of these so called green projects are creating enormous pollution in their neighbourhood and getting paid through CDM,” said a researcher involved in the study.

“Small and medium industries in India are energy inefficient, so is the transport sector. If the regulatory regime is applied on this sector our economy will be vastly affected,” said Deepak Chakrabarty, the chief scientist of the state pollution control board.