Davos 2025: Climate-Change Challenge Serious, Need Uniform Carbon Tax, Says Nadir Godrej

Climate change, which is among the top concerns expressed by policymakers and advocacy groups attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, is "getting more and more serious", according to Nadir Godrej, the chairman of Godrej Industries Ltd.

The world needs to do something to address the challenge as "we are getting close to the tipping point". The cost of adaption to combat climate change will be "greater" as compared to the cost of prevention, Godrej said while speaking to NDTV on Monday.

The logical thing would be to prevent climate change rather than adapting to it, he said, but added that this requires world leaders to set a "level-playing field". At the foremost, there is a need for uniform carbon prices all over the world, the veteran industry leader explained.

A "unform carbon tax collected by individual states" holds the potential of effectively addressing this problem, he added.

According to the Godrej Industries chief, the focus should also be on new technologies to address climate change. This includes "regenerative agriculture", which involves adding organic carbon into the soil, he said, adding that this can improve the yields as well.

The use of green energy should be expanded, Godrej stressed, while noting that wind and solar energy are strong alternatives to conventional sources of energy, "but are sporadic".

"For base load energy, we need to look at nuclear energy.... Nuclear is an extremely green technology," he said. On being asked about the safety concerns posed by nuclear energy, Godrej said that a small modular nuclear is considered to "be very safe".

Godrej also sees huge potential in the biomass energy, which he described as a "great green fuel". He is also of the view that stubble or crop residue, which is generally burnt by farmers in autumn in the Indo-Gangetic plains, should instead be used as biomass energy.

The only problem is that biomass is "bulky and freight costs are high", he pointed out. Also, farmers do not have much time between the two different crop cycles, which compels them to burn the stubble to clear their fields.

This can be addressed if the crop cycle and crop choice could be altered, the industry leader said.

Notably, Godrej Agrovet, the agro-business arm of Godrej Industries, has been involved in the palm oil business since 1989. The business is "well established" in Andhra Pradesh, and the plan is to expand it into Telangana, Odisha and four northeastern states over the next four years, Godrej said.

"We have 65,000 hectares already planted, and are producing 120,000 tonnes of oil already... We are planning to add 100,000 hectares in the next four years," he added.