India is putting the legal building blocks in place that will create real domestic carbon markets, and it is opening the door for fintechs to begin playing a significant role in fixing the country’s environmental problems. But while the PayUs of India — the country’s largest payments provider — are getting on board by offering offsets at the point of sale, we were interested in companies and ideas that went further. The kind that could, using a mixture of interesting business models and Web3 technology, upend how banking is done. And not just in India. 

In this episode we speak to MyPlan8 cofounders Nidhi Mehra and Koushik Sur, Offset Farm cofounder Saurabh Saraf, and fintech powerhouse and new Director of the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA), Smita Aggarwal. 

This episode was produced by Charis Palmer and Rachel Williamson, with sound engineering by Kevin Hirshorn. Music credits to Mahesh Vinayakram, BOOM Library and Raz Burg

Selected research: 

– The Myth of Mobilising Private Finance for Climate Action and Pivoting to Scale

– How technology is transforming green finance: blockchain credit bonds break new ground

– Developing carbon trading markets in Southeast Asia

– Time To Promote Climate Fintech For Individuals

– India’s ambitions and possibilities of becoming a global green leader

– India’s Carbon Credit Policy and the Greenwashing Conundrum 

– Transitioning to Net Zero, the India Fintech story