Nadir Godrej, chairman of Godrej Agrovet and managing director of Godrej Industries, said on Wednesday that climate equity is a very important issue.
Speaking on Day 2 of the Mumbai Climate Week, a three-day event held at the Jio Convention Center in Mumbai, Godrej discussed the relevant issue of Western countries pushing for faster decarbonisation.
Describing climate equity as a critical issue, Godrej said that India was very late in joining the development. Before India’s entry, other countries had been emitting carbon dioxide for several years and it was already becoming a problem.
He shared an anecdote, noting that in the 1970s, one of his professors at MIT asked him to write a paper on carbon emissions. He further said that even then they saw that such a problem was likely. But he said India did not contribute much to the problem back then because “we didn’t have much of an economy”.
In the fight for climate equity, he added that while there are arguments for it, India must remember that there are also many benefits. He said as India moves further in its clean energy transition, green energy has become more affordable and offers significant benefits. While this is a legitimate issue to advocate, it may be more constructive to seek a practical compromise. One area where India could gain is participation in international carbon trading.
International carbon markets can play a key role in cost-effectively reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a European Commission report. It further stated that the adoption of emissions trading systems is expanding globally. In addition to the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), similar carbon markets are either active or under development at the national or regional level in countries such as Canada, China, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Switzerland and the United States.
With an appropriate carbon price, this problem could be solved more effectively. India could benefit greatly as trees can be grown relatively easily and cheaply. By earning carbon credits through afforestation, the country could turn this into a practical and economically viable solution, noted Godrej.
Carbon credits are certificates that indicate the reduction or elimination of one metric ton of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases.
In 2025, the European Union reintroduced international carbon credits into its climate policy to help meet its 2040 emissions targets, according to a World Economic Forum report.