By M Muneer, Fortune-500 advisor, start-up investor, and co-founder of Medici Institute for Innovation X: @MuneerMuh
Policymakers love fixing symptoms instead of the root cause. From global warming and resource depletion to rising poverty and obscene income gaps, the root cause stares us in the face: unbridled greed—of individuals, corporations, and nations. This greed has stripped the planet, exploited the poor, and left leaders morally bankrupt. As many experts remind us, there’s enough in this universe for everyone, but over-exploitation is collapsing the balance. And so, every few years, the world gathers under the grand banner of climate summits like COP meetings, carbon exchanges, and trading frameworks while the real villain, greed, keeps winning.
The pitch is always predictably polished: humanity must unite to save the planet. But when the polish is scratched off, the truth of how carbon trading has become less about reducing emissions and more about building a new market for financial speculation becomes visible. Yet another money-making mechanism paraded as moral responsibility.
Here’s the irony: volcanic eruptions every couple of years alter atmospheric chemistry in ways far more dramatic than human-led interventions. Nature has demonstrated its capacity for reset far better than the best-laid plans of humankind. Instead of addressing overconsumption, inequality, or unchecked corporate greed, policymakers keep inventing new financial instruments. These mechanisms conveniently allow the wealthy world to carry on as usual, outsourcing responsibility to developing nations while calling it “climate justice”.
Developed nations industrialised for two centuries and belched carbon without restraint. Now, as the Global South aspires to growth, it is told to slow down, cap emissions, and buy into expensive carbon trading systems. The implicit message: “Do as we say, not as we did.” Worse, the promise of “climate finance” that was supposed to flow from rich to poor countries has hardly materialised. Reports suggest that the $100-billion annual commitment made at COP15 in 2009 remains on paper, with some funds coming as loans, not grants.
The carbon exchanges have become a tool of control. Forget emission reduction; it’s all about who gets to grow and who remains in economic chains.
The real enemy is corporate greed, not nations. MNC giants today wield wealth greater than many countries. In India, the combined market capitalisation of just a handful of conglomerates—Reliance, Adani, Tata—runs into trillions of dollars. Globally, Amazon, Apple, and ExxonMobil dictate supply chains, data flows, and energy choices with far-reaching consequences.
This concentration of power is dangerous. When a few entities control vast resources, they not only distort markets but also politics, policy, and even public opinion. Carbon credits in this context are mere indulgences: a way for large corporations to keep expanding while purchasing “offsets” that rarely translate into real climate action.
The real conversations should be around greed control
Unchecked corporate growth creates fragility. A handful of tech companies dominate global communication. A few energy giants influence climate policy. In India, the sudden rise of a conglomerate in the last decade across ports, airports, and power has thwarted healthy competition.
The solutions are found in history. In the early 20th century, the antitrust laws of the US were used to break up monopolies like Standard Oil, and they are still used for action against companies like Google to create smaller, more competitive enterprises. No entity should be so large that its failure can destabilise society or its influence override democratic institutions. Isn’t it time for India to take notice?
Indian regulators always play catch-up, and political-business nexuses complicate reform. If true sustainability and fairness are to be pursued, nations must learn to set speed breakers: limiting market shares, enforcing competition, and perhaps breaking down giants.
A win-win model
Is there a way to control greed while still allowing innovation and progress? The solution perhaps lies in designing the right economic models that reward distributed prosperity, not just market cap. Here are five possibilities for policymakers:
Progressive wealth caps: As I have written about before, this is like progressive taxation. Nations could experiment with capping the pace of growth of large corporations. Mandate companies that grow beyond a certain threshold to divest so that a level playing field is created for healthy competition. Remember what Gandhiji said of “trusteeship”, where wealth beyond a limit is held for society.
Competition by design: Instead of promoting Ambani, Adani, and a few cronies, the government must encourage smaller enterprises through public sector bank credit access, procurement quotas, digital platforms, and policy tweaks. The Startup India movement has potential, but without protection from predatory acquisition by giants, start-ups can’t become challengers.
Stakeholder capitalism: “Maximising shareholder value” should change to “optimising stakeholder value”, as some capitalists are saying now. Companies must be responsible social citizens and look at the welfare of employees, societies, and the environment. The environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and CSR frameworks are in the right direction, but enforcement is lacking.
Return of the cooperative movement: These models offer a distributed-wealth alternative to corporate monopolies. Amul is a classic case, where it became a giant not by exploiting but by joint ownership of millions of farmers, who grew with the company. It is not difficult to replicate such models in retail, renewable energy, or even tech. But leaders must have the vision to democratise wealth creation.
Global greed index: India must take the lead in creating such an index on the lines of GDP or emissions tracking to measure corporate concentration, income inequality, and monopoly risk. By giving weightage to this metric in policy and ratings, behaviour change can be more effective than ESG pledges.
India is increasingly at risk of the richest 1% controlling more than half of the national wealth (from 40% two years ago) if greed is left unchecked. When over 800 million Indians are struggling for food, housing, and dignity, the obscene wealth of a few will eventually trigger resentment that could lead to civil unrest, protests, and even civil wars.
Carbon credits are capitalism’s cheat code—press X to pollute, Y to profit. But no code cracks nature’s system. Greed is the only infinite resource on a finite planet. Left with no regulation, chaos will rule.
Views are personal