The controversial climate tool funding real change | Sandeep Roy Choudhury
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 12.1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 February 2026
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If a company plants trees to offset its pollution, is that climate progress — or is it greenwashing? Critics of carbon markets say it’s the latter. But Sandeep Roy Choudhury, who’s spent two decades financing climate projects from rural cookstoves to coastal forests, says the real failure is discouraging companies from even trying. Hear his case for why we shouldn’t let perfection block meaningful action on climate change.
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas and conversations to spark your curiosity every day. |
| 0:13.2 | I'm your host, Elise Hugh. |
| 0:14.8 | We often share our talks on this show that explore the ways in which making a profit and a positive impact on the world can go |
| 0:21.1 | hand in hand. Where do carbon credits fit into this? In this talk, climate equity entrepreneur |
| 0:27.7 | Sandeep Roy Chudry suggests that carbon credits are an imperfect but still powerful financial |
| 0:34.4 | tool to make solutions a reality, especially in vulnerable communities |
| 0:39.1 | already facing climate change's worst effects. Sandeep explores why the math of carbon credits |
| 0:44.7 | works and how they're able to fund real projects, from mangrove restoration to emission-cutting |
| 0:51.0 | cooking initiatives that are building on-the-ground resilience, |
| 0:54.7 | creating jobs, and serving the planet. |
| 1:00.8 | We don't live in a perfect world. |
| 1:02.9 | I wish we did. |
| 1:04.7 | Especially when it comes to fighting climate change. |
| 1:07.8 | Sure, we have 30% of the world on clean energy, |
| 1:10.2 | but we still depend a lot on fossil fuels for the near future. |
| 1:13.6 | Take the science-based targets initiative. |
| 1:16.6 | It's a leading decarbonization initiative for businesses. |
| 1:19.6 | Businesses have taken a target on an average of 6.4% emission reductions per year, |
| 1:25.6 | year-on-year till they go net zero. That's great news. and 4 percent emission reductions per year, year and year, |
| 1:27.7 | till they go net zero. |
| 1:29.8 | That's great news. |
| 1:32.9 | But what happens to the other 93.6 percent? |
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