The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) hosted a seminar titled “Role of Carbon Pricing and Carbon Markets to Support India’s Decarbonisation Pathway” on Wednesday, March 5, 2025.  

The seminar featured a presentation by Renato Roldao, Member, Task Force for International Carbon Pricing and Markets Diplomacy, DG Clima, European Commission, followed by a conversation with Shreekant Gupta, Visiting Senior Fellow, CSEP and Renu Kohli, Senior Fellow, CSEP. The discussion was chaired by Laveesh Bhandari, President, CSEP.

About the event

The presentation focused on the experience of European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) from 2005 to date with particular focus on the latest reforms and the design elements that might be of relevance and interest for India as the country is actively embracing the design and implementation of its own carbon market and considering other complementary forms of carbon pricing, namely via carbon tax or making using of international carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. A robust carbon pricing instrument can certainly facilitate trade relations and compliance with CBAM as the price effectively paid will be considered.

Presenter

Renato Roldao

Renato Roldao is a Member of the Task Force International carbon pricing and markets diplomacy, DG Clima, European Commission.

Prior to that he was ICF China Managing Director and Vice President – Green Transition China and East Asia and Deputy-Director of ICF Climate Centre. Renato is a climate, energy, and environment expert with over 20 years of experience in international climate policy, carbon markets, clean energy, environmental issues, and sustainability. He previously worked and lived in Asia for over 16 years. He draws from extensive experience, including leading a delegation of observers to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for the Conference of Parties (COP) COP21 and COP22 conferences, as well as coordinating delegations of observers to the COP23 through COP28 conferences. Additionally, Renato has experience in supporting Emissions Trading System (ETS) policy design and implementation for the European Union, China, Korea, and Ukraine.

Renato was former project team leader of the EU-China ETS Platform. He was also a member of the supervisory board of the European Chamber of Commerce in China and in that capacity, he was elected to serve in the Executive Committee from May 2023 – May 2024.

Renato graduated in International Policy and earned a master’s degree in Chinese Studies from the University of Aveiro with a thesis on the use of renewable energy in northwest China. He also completed courses of the master’s degree program in “Economics, energy, and environmental policy” before transitioning to a doctorate degree in “Sustainable energy systems” from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Portugal Program.

Chair

Laveesh Bhandari

Laveesh Bhandari is President and a Senior Fellow at CSEP. Dr Bhandari has published widely on subjects related to sustainable livelihoods, industrial, economic, and social reforms in India, economic geography, and financial inclusion. He received his PhD in economics from Boston University for which he was awarded the Best Thesis in International Economics. He has taught economics at Boston University and IIT Delhi. Apart from applied economics research, Dr Bhandari has built, seeded, and exited from three companies in the research, analytics, and digital domains, including Indicus Analytics, a leading economic research firm. Currently, he is conducting research on issues of inclusion, India’s energy transition, and how it will impact the government as well as the economy.

Discussants

Shreekant Gupta

Shreekant Gupta is Visiting Senior Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Progress, New Delhi and Executive Education Senior Fellow, LKY School of Public Policy at National University of Singapore. Earlier he was Professor at Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. He served on the Economic Options Committee of the Montreal Protocol and as an author of the Fifth and Sixth Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has a PhD in Economics from the University of Maryland and was Fulbright Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His most recent publication is “Carbon Pricing through Emissions Trading in Asia and the Pacific: Comparative Analysis and Way Forward” (ADB).

Renu Kohli

Renu Kohli is a Senior Fellow at CSEP and works on macroeconomics, financial sector and climate issues. She is a former staff member of the RBI and the IMF and has both practitioner as well as research experience. She has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, authored a book on India’s capital account liberalisation, and actively contributes to public policy discourse through op-ed contributions. She has been a consultant to private foreign investors, expert consultant with the IMF institute, and serves as independent director on the board of a private bank and a nonbank financial company.

All content reflects the individual views of the speakers. The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) does not hold an institutional view on any subject.

Please contact Gurmeet Kaur at GKaur@csep.org for general queries and Ayesha Manocha at AManocha@csep.org for media queries.