The Exchanges

Q People looking to invest in electric vehicles, or people looking for jobs in the EV industry. How hopeful are you of that industry from a 10 year lens?

A So there are, I'm very hopeful that it's going to happen because it has to happen. Let me put it that way. The imperative is clear. We, why do we need EV? Let's also understand that because, um, the rest of the world is very romantic about EV. I mean, EV in the rest in the Western world is largely an electrification issue that the more you electrify and clean up your electricity source, The better it is rather than having those decentralized many sources using oil. For us, the EV story is slightly different. For us, we need EV to clean up our air pollution. I mean, if we get EV into our cities, we will dramatically reduce, improve air quality. And you know, Mumbai, Delhi, now almost every city of India is choking. Absolutely. So EV for us is an imperative. But there are two issues, which I think we need to address and address them very clearly. And one is, of course, the war that is happening between the world, the US and China, which is really about the control of the supply chain, which is new minerals, technology, battery technology, lithium, cobalt, graphite, all in China. When climate change began, Nikhil, and it's, it's just a little bit of a digression here. It's important to understand the role of trade, because for most of us, when we looked at climate change, we never saw that there was a parallel thing happening in our world, which was WTO and free trade was beginnin…

AI assessment note: “I'm very hopeful that it's going to happen because it has to happen.”

Q And everybody had heard climate change, climate change, but nobody could describe what it is. And it's such an important thing before you start. Worrying about something, you have to be cognizant to what it is in a way, right? So we hope you're able to tell a lot of people through this in a very simple way. What is climate change?

A It's a good, very good question because, and we've heard it, I mean, different thing, we've got the full picture here. I mean, if I was to wrap this up, I would simply say that, um, you know, there, there is something that we take for granted, which is things that we use largely fuel. That we burn, fossil fuels, um, oil, gas, um, everything that makes our world so good. That we have found today is emitting, um, a substance called carbon dioxide, which has a very long life. So unlike, say, the emissions that you have in your city, which are bad, but those are short lived. So, you know, you have particles, but they, if you clean up, if you, Can get some wind, and if you, and they have a natural life, but carbon dioxide has a very long life. Now that is filling up our atmosphere, and it's, as Mirik said, I mean, to me, the most evocative image is that Earth has got a blanket on it. And so that, all those gases are being trapped, and as a result of it, you're getting temperature increase happening. Now, your point about Donald Trump and Vivek Ramaswamy and all the rest in terms of saying, but this is, everything we're seeing is natural variability. The fact is, yes, ah, there is natural variability in weather. We've always had floods, we've always had droughts, we've always had a landslide, You know, lightning strike. But what you are seeing now and is the intensity and frequency o…

AI assessment note: “all those gases are being trapped, and as a result of it, you're getting temperature increase”

Q So if I have X amount of money to allocate towards climate change, is it best spent on trees?

A No, no, a lot of people have been buying, a lot of people, so if you look at the offset programs, if you look at the analysis we did, so Michelin, um, Danone, a lot of the companies that are claiming carbon credits are claiming it on the basis of the trees that they have, um, bought the offsets from, the carbon credits from. The problem is, let's, let's, you know, that's, this is the, the problem is, that cost of the tree, on whose land it's being planted, whether the person is benefiting from it, those are not the questions, ok? You want a cheap deal, you want a cheap emission reduction, you want to basically say, I can continue to pollute, but I have plant, I have bought a carbon credit from, ah, from wherever, ok? And I have paid, Pittens for it.

AI assessment note: “No, no, a lot of people have been buying”

Q Is it one of those things that the people who are talking most about climate also understand it lesser?

A No, I'm not sure I would say that. I just think it's a, I think today there's just a lot more talk. It's a cacophony. Everybody's talking, but if I, and I'm sure we will discuss it, where is the action? I mean, when we push for clean air in Delhi, for instance, I was 15 years, 20 years actually, on a court mandated committee. I had an enormous luxury. I reported directly to the judge. And I was on a committee, which Navro's joined also for a while. And I basically, if he gave a report, it was listened to. And I, we pushed, we got CNG in Delhi, and that was very brave because there was no CNG across compressed natural gas. So essentially changing the fuel from diesel to gas. We got diesel. Diesel was our bugbear. We couldn't get it banned, but we got the price differential change. So, you know, a lot of pushing and inconvenient things were done, ah, and it is inconvenient. Point today is we want climate change sorted out. We want the world's existential issue to be solved, but we want to do that at no cost. No cost to us, no cost to anyone. And that's not gonna happen.

AI assessment note: “No, I'm not sure I would say that.”