Decarbonization not a trade-off with growth but a human responsibility, says Gentari CFO

Decarbonization is not just an economic agenda but a human responsibility, and not a trade-off with growth, Gentari India chief financial officer Sachin Bajaj said at the Mint Sustainability Summit in New Delhi, warning that recent cloudbursts and floods in Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab that have killed hundreds highlight the cost of inaction.

Bajaj said the disasters, which claimed hundreds of lives, swept away entire villages and left communities on the Vaishno Devi route in J&K scrambling to rebuild, underscore how fragile mountain ecosystems are becoming more vulnerable as global warming intensifies.

“These are not isolated events, nor abstract statistics. These are human lives and futures uprooted in an instant,” Bajaj said. “They remind us that decarbonization is not only an economic imperative, it is, above all, a human responsibility.”

India, he argued, carries a unique responsibility as the world’s fastest-growing large economy: to lift millions into prosperity while ensuring that growth is clean, resilient and inclusive. “Growing while decarbonizing may appear a paradox, but in truth it is our greatest advantage. Decarbonization is not a trade-off with growth, it is the pathway to growth itself,” he added.

Bajaj noted that India’s scale, innovation capacity and conviction give it the ability to leapfrog into clean industries, resilient infrastructure and sustainable energy systems, setting a template for the Asia-Pacific.

“The choices India makes today will ripple far beyond our borders,” he said, pointing to a 90% fall in solar costs over the past decade, alongside advances in wind, battery storage, electric mobility and green hydrogen.

Gentari, the clean energy arm of Malaysia’s Petronas, has been expanding projects in solar, wind and green mobility across India and the Asia-Pacific.

Meanwhile, relentless rain across Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Punjab and Haryana has killed at least 500 people this monsoon, triggering fresh landslides and flash floods. More than 255 villages were submerged within 24 hours, and in Punjab, facing its worst floods in nearly four decades, officials said over 1,200 villages have been hit.

On 4 September, the Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance of the devastation in the Himalayan states, flagging the possibility that illegal tree felling worsened the floods and landslides.

A bench led by Chief Justice B.R. Gavai issued notices to the Centre, the National Disaster Management Authority, and multiple states, directing them to respond within two weeks.

The warnings also align with global findings.

A new Climate Risk Index 2025 by Germanwatch revealed that India recorded at least 80,000 deaths and economic losses of $180 billion over the past three decades due to climate change-induced extreme weather events, accounting for more than 10% of global fatalities.