India’s climate transition could become far more than an environmental imperative. If the country can turn better data, cleaner technology, resilient agriculture, and credible carbon markets into productive economic infrastructure, green could become a source of competitive advantage.
For years, the climate conversation in business has been dominated by risk, regulation, compliance, and cost. Hisham Mundol, Chief Advisor – India at the Environmental Defense Fund, sees a different opportunity.
As India enters a more ambitious phase of economic growth, he argues that climate action could become embedded in the machinery of competitiveness itself. From resilient agriculture and environmental data to carbon markets, clean technology, and climate-smart infrastructure, the opportunity lies in solving economic problems while addressing environmental ones. For India, that could mean turning the climate transition into a source of productivity, investment, innovation, and new markets – provided execution can match ambition. Excerpts from our conversation with him below.
Climate is often framed through the lens of risk, cost and compliance. How can India begin to see the climate transition as a wealth-creation story and what economic opportunities are we currently underestimating?
I think the starting point is to stop treating climate as a separate sector. It is increasingly about how competitive the whole economy will be. India has an opportunity to build industries, technologies and markets for a world that is itself becoming more climate-conscious.
Some of the biggest opportunities are not necessarily the most obvious ones. Improving agricultural productivity while reducing emissions, making supply chains more resilient, using better environmental data to allocate capital, and developing credible carbon markets can all create economic value. There is also a significant opportunity for Indian companies to develop solutions that work in emerging markets and then export them globally.
The real opportunity is to make climate action economically productive, not simply economically acceptable, or conceptually imperative.
With India developing its carbon market and attracting growing interest in climate finance, what would it take to build the credibility and investor confidence needed for these markets to scale meaningfully?
Trust is the currency of any market, and carbon markets are no different. Investors and companies need confidence that a tonne of emissions reduction is real, measurable, and comparable.
India has made important progress in building the architecture for its carbon market. The next step is implementation: robust measurement and verification, transparent rules, predictable signals for businesses and enough liquidity for the market to function effectively.
I would also emphasise that credibility and scale should not be seen as competing objectives. The stronger the market infrastructure, the more capital it can attract. A credible Indian carbon market can ultimately become an important tool for directing private investment towards lower-emission technologies and practices.
As climate risks become increasingly material to businesses and investors, is environmental data and monitoring emerging as a new form of economic infrastructure? What opportunities could this create for India?
Absolutely. We are moving from a world where environmental information was largely used for reporting to one where it can increasingly inform economic decisions.
Better data can tell a company where its physical risks are, an investor where assets may be exposed, a regulator where intervention is most effective, and a farmer or fishery where changing conditions may require a different approach.
India has an enormous opportunity here because of the scale and diversity of its economy. Satellites, sensors, remote sensing, AI and other technologies can make environmental information more timely and actionable. But technology alone is not enough. The real value comes when good data is connected to decisions, markets and institutions.
That is why I increasingly think of environmental data as infrastructure: not because it is another dataset, but because it can make other parts of the economy work better.
Where do you see the strongest intersection between climate action and India’s next phase of economic growth, whether through clean technology, new industries, jobs, carbon markets or climate finance?
The strongest intersection is where climate action solves an existing economic problem.
India needs more productive agriculture, more resilient infrastructure, reliable and affordable energy, competitive industries and better jobs. Climate solutions that advance those objectives will have much greater staying power than solutions that depend primarily on climate ambition.
Take agriculture. Practices that reduce emissions while improving productivity and farmer incomes are simultaneously a climate solution and a development solution. The same principle applies to industrial efficiency, clean energy, resilient fisheries, and climate-smart infrastructure.
The opportunity is therefore much bigger than creating a “green economy”. It is about making the Indian economy more productive and resilient as it grows.
If the “Confidence Economy” is ultimately about where investors, businesses and consumers believe future value will be created, what would make you confident that India’s climate transition can become one of its biggest wealth-creation stories over the next decade?
What gives me confidence is that India does not have to choose between growth and climate action. In many areas, the two can reinforce each other.
India has scale, entrepreneurial capacity, a large domestic market, and a growing ability to deploy technology at speed. If that is combined with strong institutions, credible markets and better environmental information, the transition can create entirely new sources of value.
But I would frame this as an opportunity rather than a prediction. The next decade will be about execution. Can we build markets that investors trust? Can we make climate technologies commercially viable? Can we ensure that farmers, workers and communities participate in the value created?
If we can, India’s climate transition will not simply be about reducing emissions. It could become part of the country’s broader story of productivity, competitiveness, and prosperity.
In summary to all of the questions, green should not just be a colour. It should be India’s economic edge.
