Manish Dabkara on Carbon Credits, Net Zero and the Trillion-Dollar Future of the Carbon Market | Brain Box - The Leadership Podcast
Updated: 7 hours ago
TL;DR: Episode 91 of the Brain Box - The Leadership Podcast explores how Manish Dabkara built EKI Energy from an early-stage venture in Indore into a major player in the global carbon credit market, while explaining what carbon credits actually are, why India’s net-zero ambitions matter to businesses, and why the carbon market could become a…
Episode 91 of the Brain Box - The Leadership Podcast explores how Manish Dabkara built EKI Energy from an early-stage venture in Indore into a major player in the global carbon credit market, while explaining what carbon credits actually are, why India’s net-zero ambitions matter to businesses, and why the carbon market could become a trillion-dollar industry.
In Episode 91 of Brain Box - The Leadership Podcast, hosted by Kaushik Bose, Manish explains how his background in energy management led him into the carbon market, what carbon credits actually represent, how companies can use them, and why the transition towards net zero is creating a structural shift in the way businesses think about emissions, energy and sustainability.
The conversation also moves beyond the mechanics of carbon credits. Manish discusses India's 2070 net-zero ambition, the growing influence of ESG considerations on corporate financing, the emergence of compliance carbon markets, the shift from avoidance-based to removal-based carbon credits, and the challenges around greenwashing and credit quality.
Most importantly, his perspective comes from having spent nearly two decades building within the sector. This makes the conversation less about sustainability as a fashionable corporate theme and more about how an entire industry is being constructed around one of the world's most consequential economic and environmental transitions.
About Manish Dabkara
Manish Dabkara is the Chairman and Managing Director of EKI Energy Services, a company operating in the global carbon credit market. He began his entrepreneurial journey in 2008 after completing an M.Tech in Energy Management and working for approximately a year.
What makes his journey particularly interesting is that he entered the carbon market at a time when the sector was still relatively nascent in India. Over the years, EKI evolved into a major carbon credit project developer, with its work extending across international markets.
Manish is also the first president of the Carbon Market Association of India, an organisation established to create greater awareness around carbon markets among policymakers, investors and other stakeholders. He has also received recognition including the Rajiv Gandhi Award in 2014 and a Fortune Under 40 recognition, as discussed during the conversation.
How did Manish Dabkara enter the carbon credit industry in 2008?
Manish's entry into the carbon market was not driven by a grand thesis about climate change. In fact, he openly admits that when he started the business in 2008, he did not know much about climate or sustainability.
His educational background was the more immediate catalyst. Having completed an M.Tech in Energy Management, he was exposed to the emerging global carbon credit industry through his college seniors. At the time, the market represented an opportunity that was still relatively unfamiliar to many Indian entrepreneurs.
After working for about a year, Manish started EnKing International in 2008. The organisation was subsequently incorporated in 2011 as EKI Energy Services. That early entry turned out to be strategically significant. Instead of entering carbon markets after sustainability had already become a mainstream corporate priority, Manish spent years building expertise while the industry itself was still developing.
The result was a business that eventually became one of the world's significant carbon credit project developers. In the conversation, Manish describes EKI as having ranked among the largest developers globally in terms of carbon credit development and as a major supplier from India.
What exactly is a carbon credit?
For anyone unfamiliar with the carbon market, one of the most useful parts of the conversation is Manish's explanation of what a carbon credit actually represents.
At its most basic level, a carbon credit corresponds to one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent. Carbon credits can broadly emerge from activities that either avoid greenhouse gas emissions or remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
This is an important distinction because carbon markets are not simply about companies "buying sustainability". They create an economic mechanism through which emissions reductions can have a financial value. For project developers and communities, this can create an additional revenue stream and potentially improve the financial attractiveness and return on investment of projects that deliver environmental benefits.
Why are carbon credits becoming increasingly important for businesses?
The carbon market is becoming more important because the pressure on businesses to reduce emissions is no longer coming from just one direction. India has signed the Paris Agreement, and the country's stated ambition is to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070. While the commitment is at a national level, the implications eventually extend into the private sector, particularly for large emitters and industries with significant carbon footprints.
Manish points to ESG, or Environmental, Social and Governance considerations, as another important force. Financial institutions and fund houses increasingly evaluate companies on ESG parameters when deciding where to deploy debt and equity.
That creates a powerful economic incentive. Sustainability is no longer only a question of reputation or corporate responsibility. It can increasingly influence access to capital, investor perception and the competitiveness of businesses operating in global supply chains.
There is also pressure coming from customers and international markets. Companies exporting to markets such as the European Union may increasingly have to account for the carbon intensity associated with their products and supply chains. Manish also refers to mechanisms such as the EU's carbon-related trade requirements and the broader pressure being created through sustainable supply chains.
The implication is significant: carbon management is gradually moving from the sustainability department into the core business agenda.
India's net-zero ambition could fundamentally reshape corporate behaviour
One of the central ideas emerging from the conversation is that India's 2070 net-zero target cannot be viewed simply as a government commitment. If a country intends to reach net zero, its major emitting sectors eventually have to participate in that transition. This includes industrial and private-sector emitters.
For companies, that means measuring emissions, reducing them wherever possible and dealing with residual emissions through mechanisms such as renewable energy procurement, energy efficiency initiatives and, where appropriate, carbon credits.
Manish describes this as a combination of domestic policy, international agreements and market pressure. There is also a growing expectation that businesses will demonstrate a credible pathway towards lower emissions rather than simply make sustainability claims. For companies operating in international supply chains, the pressure can be even stronger because multinational customers may impose their own sustainability requirements on suppliers.
This creates a chain reaction. A global company may establish sustainability requirements for its direct supplier, who then needs to impose similar expectations on the supplier of components, materials or services. Sustainability, therefore, increasingly travels through the supply chain.
The carbon market is moving from avoidance to carbon removal
Manish explains that EKI's historical focus was largely on avoidance-based carbon credits. These projects seek to prevent emissions that would otherwise have occurred. The company is now increasingly focusing on removal-based carbon credits, where the objective is to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
This includes areas such as afforestation, reforestation, forest restoration and agroforestry. Manish discusses a collaboration with Royal Dutch Shell through a joint venture called Amrut Nature Solutions, involving agroforestry projects where farmers can benefit from tree-based activities.
The model is interesting because the environmental outcome and the economic outcome can potentially reinforce each other. Farmers can receive additional livelihood or revenue opportunities while participating in projects that contribute to carbon removal.
Manish also discusses biochar and the use of biomass in agricultural fields as another area connected to carbon removal and soil carbon. The shift from avoidance to removal reflects a larger reality about decarbonization. Reducing future emissions is essential, but as long as significant residual emissions remain in the global economy, carbon removal is likely to become an increasingly important part of the climate equation.
Can carbon credits turn CSR from an expense into a self-sustaining model?
Another particularly interesting observation from Manish concerns corporate social responsibility.
He argues that many CSR projects are treated as expenses. A company invests in a project one year, but if it wants that project to continue, it often has to allocate another budget the following year.
Carbon-linked projects can potentially create a different economic model. If a project generates carbon credits alongside its social or environmental impact, those credits can create an additional revenue stream. That revenue can help make the underlying project more financially sustainable. Manish gives examples involving rural communities, cleaner cooking solutions, water filters, improved manufacturing processes, solar cooking technologies and other sustainability interventions.
Why carbon markets need to solve the greenwashing and quality problem
The growth of carbon markets comes with a significant challenge: credibility.
Manish identifies two major concerns affecting the voluntary carbon market: the quality of carbon credits and greenwashing. As carbon credits have become more visible, questions have emerged around whether every credit represents a genuine, measurable and additional environmental benefit. If businesses can purchase low-quality credits and use them primarily as a marketing tool, the credibility of the entire market suffers.
This is particularly important because the industry is moving from being largely voluntary towards a world in which compliance markets could become significantly more consequential.
What is the future of the carbon market?
Manish is particularly bullish about the future of the carbon market. He points towards the expansion of compliance carbon markets under the broader framework of the Paris Agreement, including Article 6, and believes compliance carbon markets could become a trillion-dollar industry by 2030.
He also references forecasts from organisations including McKinsey, BCG and Morgan Stanley that suggest significant growth in the carbon market over the coming years.
The opportunity, however, is not restricted to selling carbon credits.
Manish describes a broader sustainability ecosystem emerging around carbon markets. This includes carbon accounting, emissions measurement, low-carbon pathways, sustainability software, carbon credit trading platforms and tools to help organisations manage their decarbonisation journeys.
EKI itself has expanded into adjacent areas, including sustainability software, a carbon credit trading and management platform, green fuel through a briquetting plant in Nashik, and power trading aimed at supplying green electricity. This reveals an important strategic shift. Carbon may be the entry point, but the larger opportunity is the infrastructure required to help businesses transition towards a lower-carbon economy.
Why the next phase of sustainability will be about business infrastructure
The conversation ultimately moves beyond carbon credits themselves. If businesses are expected to measure emissions, reduce their carbon footprint, improve energy efficiency, procure renewable electricity, manage residual emissions and demonstrate progress towards net zero, they will need systems and services to support that journey.
That creates opportunities across technology, consulting, energy, carbon markets and sustainability services. For businesses, this means sustainability could increasingly become embedded into operating models rather than treated as an annual reporting exercise.
For entrepreneurs, it creates an equally interesting question: where will the infrastructure gaps emerge as companies attempt to navigate this transition? Manish's own expansion into software, power trading, green fuel and other sustainability-related activities illustrates how an entrepreneur who started in one part of the ecosystem can gradually build around the larger structural shift.
The carbon market, therefore, may not be the destination. It may be one of the building blocks of a much larger sustainability economy.
The leadership lesson from building in an emerging industry
There is also a broader entrepreneurial lesson in Manish's journey. When he entered the industry in 2008, carbon markets were nowhere near the scale or visibility they have today. He did not enter an established market with a fully developed ecosystem. He entered early and spent years developing expertise as the market itself evolved.
That requires a different kind of entrepreneurial patience. The opportunity in an emerging industry is rarely obvious to everyone at the beginning. In Manish's case, the market went through significant changes, including periods when carbon markets struggled and the voluntary market came under pressure.
Yet the underlying problem did not disappear. The world continued to grapple with greenhouse gas emissions, climate change and the transition towards lower-carbon economies. As regulation, investor expectations and international trade mechanisms evolved, the economic importance of carbon markets began to change as well.
That is perhaps the most interesting leadership takeaway from the conversation: an entrepreneur building in a structural transition has to be prepared for the market to evolve repeatedly before the original thesis becomes mainstream.
Key Takeaways from Manish Dabkara
Carbon credits put an economic value on emissions reduction. Projects that avoid or remove greenhouse gas emissions can potentially generate carbon credits, creating an additional revenue stream alongside their environmental impact.
Net zero is becoming a business issue, not merely an environmental objective. India's 2070 ambition, ESG expectations, investor pressure and international supply-chain requirements are all pushing companies towards more serious carbon management.
The market is shifting from avoidance towards removal. Afforestation, reforestation, agroforestry, biochar and soil carbon are becoming increasingly important as the world deals with both future and historical emissions.
Carbon markets need credibility to scale. Greenwashing and the quality of carbon credits remain significant challenges, making verification, standards and credible rating mechanisms increasingly important.
The larger opportunity may extend well beyond carbon credits. Sustainability software, emissions measurement, renewable energy, green fuels, carbon trading platforms and decarbonization services could all become part of the infrastructure supporting the transition to a lower-carbon economy.
The conversation with Manish Dabkara is ultimately not just about carbon credits. It is about the emergence of an entirely new economic layer around sustainability, regulation, energy and emissions. For companies, the question is increasingly moving from whether sustainability matters to how deeply it needs to be integrated into the business.
And for entrepreneurs, the opportunity may lie not merely in participating in the carbon market, but in building the infrastructure that helps an entire generation of businesses navigate the transition.
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About Brain Box - The Leadership Podcast
Hosted by Kaushik Bose, Brain Box - The Leadership Podcast features candid conversations with founders, CEOs, CXOs and business leaders on leadership, entrepreneurship, business and the experiences behind their journeys. The podcast has published 100+ episodes and was voted 9th pan-India by Spotify in 2022.
