Climate equity is crucial, says Nadir Godrej, urges India to embrace carbon trading

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 being held at the Jio Convention Centre in Mumbai, Godrej discussed the pertinent question of Western countries pushing for faster decarbonisation.

Calling climate equity a crucial issue, Godrej said that India joined the development very late. Before India's entry, other countries had been emitting carbon dioxide for several years, and it was already becoming a problem.

Sharing an anecdote, he noted that in the 70s, one of his professors at MIT asked him to write a paper on carbon emissions. He further said that even back then, they could see that such a problem was likely. He, however, said that India did not contribute much to the problem back then, because “we didn't have much of an economy”.

Batting for climate equity, he added that while there is an argument for it, India must remember that there are many benefits as well. He said that as India moves further along in the clean energy transition, green energy has become more affordable and offers significant benefits. While this is a legitimate issue to advocate for, it may be more constructive to seek a practical compromise. One area where India could gain is through participation in international carbon trading.

According to a European Commission report, International carbon markets can play a key role in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions cost-effectively. It further said that the adoption of emissions trading systems is expanding globally. In addition to the EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), similar carbon markets are either active or under development at national or regional levels in countries such as Canada, China, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United States.

With an appropriate carbon price in place, this problem could be addressed more effectively. India could benefit significantly, as trees can be grown relatively easily and at low cost. By earning carbon credits through afforestation, the country could turn this into a practical and economically beneficial solution, Godrej noted.

Carbon credits are certificates that indicate the reduction or removal of one metric tonne of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases.

In 2025, according to a report by the World Economic Forum, the European Union reintroduced international carbon credits into its climate policy to help meet its 2040 emission targets.

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