It is no longer Climate Change
Within a tolerable range.
A crisis is what it’s about
With fires, floods as well as drought.
Every week a constant blast
Far worse than seen in the past.
If we must, we will adapt
Prevention though would be more apt.
There is a cost to adaptation,
It’s rising fast in every nation
As well as for the world at large.
This will be a heavy charge.
In fact we should all conclude
Prevention would be far more shrewd.
It actually would cost much less
And avoid a lot of stress.
A uniform carbon tax
Would protect all our backs.
Collected by each Nation state
But universal in its rate!
All GHGs would be fair game.
Every country should charge the same.
The benefit that this would yield
Would be a level playing field.
Competitors just wouldn’t care
Because this system’s very fair.
Just how high should this tax be?
A range of numbers we can see.
But Sixty dollars per metric ton
Would surely get reduction done.
For carbon this could be the rate
For others we would calibrate.
The appropriate rate we would select
Based on the Greenhouse Gas effect.
Based on today’s emissions rate
Quite candidly I should state
It wouldn’t be a trivial sum
But there’s no reason to be glum.
In dollars it would be Two Trillion
It is a lot but not a Zillion!
Compared to global GDP
The percentage is less than three.
Compared to taxes then again
The percentage is less than ten!
Of course some would then take a call
To reduce emissions not pay it all.
But bear in mind it’s not a cost.
For the economy nothing’s lost.
A UBI could be instated.
Some other tax could be abated.
And if this is indeed just so
The economy would still grow.
Don’t you think it’s very nice
That there is hardly any price.
And very little would be lost
As adaptation has a higher cost!
In the Godrej Group it is seen
That our goals of Good and Green
Though ambitious will be done
Sustainability can be won.
And so without partiality
Our goal for all's neutrality.
Whether water, carbon or solid waste
By 2025 we’ll make haste
To make our net emissions zero.
Will that make the group a hero?
In 2010 the goal looked tall
But we took a reasoned call
Technology would save the day.
So far it has turned out that way.
As technology takes a leap
Green energy gets very cheap.
Keen observers quickly saw
That Solar also tracks Moore's law.
Whether groundnut shell or bagasse
Our India's full of biomass.
And bamboo now is on the way
There are so many ways we can play.
Avoiding a foreign supply chain
Would be another substantial gain.
True energy security
Is what we’d see certainly.
At first we thought we'd have to spend
But that's not true, for in the end,
The more we thought, the more we slaved
We did invest but we also saved.
And solar is still getting cheaper
And as we do start digging deeper
In India it will hit the goal
Of being cheaper than even coal
In just a handful of years.
Already we and our peers
Are sourcing solar electricity
At lower rates than from the utility.
For quite some time we've been extorted
As their finances aren't still sorted.
A silver lining can be seen,
Since it incentivises green.
Technology can save the day
But developed nations can pave the way:
Atone for their earlier sins
By paying for new win wins.
A technology fund is what we need.
Developing nations can succeed
If free access is afforded.
This indeed should be accorded.
By avoiding disastrous pain
Every country stands to gain.
