‘This will be India’s Earthshot’: CEO Jason Knauf on why Global South is leading climate race

Jason Knauf: I think it is going to make a huge difference in two ways. First, it’s sometimes important for countries to have a moment to stand up, recognise, and celebrate the leadership within their own country, because that helps galvanise confidence and ambition to go even further domestically. And I think that’s what we’re seeing here from ground-up cities, at the state level. We really need these moments where we can come together.

The second thing is that the rest of the world needs to understand how much India is doing. We often get lost in global negotiations-“Oh, this person said X and this person said Y.”

Climate action is about a lot more than what happens at COPs; therefore, the noise that we actually need to hear and be inspired by is the huge amount of activity that’s happening right across India that can inspire people across the world and also have relevance. Many technologies and innovative practices we see today are emerging from India, with significant global relevance, including in developed countries.

Q. So you mentioned how you’re trying to bring out the perspective of India in the entire climate scenario, but up until now, at least until a few years ago, we see that global climate initiatives have mostly been led by developed nations. How are you ensuring India retains its voice?

Jason Knauf: Well, this will be India’s Earthshot, not Earthshot coming to India. It’s how we want to have this, and it’s hosted locally. That’s what we started here at Mumbai Climate Week (MCW). We met with the Union Environment Ministry in Delhi and also saw the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

We really, really want everyone here to make Earthshot what they want it to be and I think we’ve had a really good track record. In 2025, the Earthshot Prize was held in Rio, Brazil, and hosted with full ownership, which is really important. Prince William’s primary idea behind hosting the Earthshot Prize was to make sure that the voices of climate innovators and leaders are loudest in the room, and we have more of those innovators from India than anywhere else. Our job is to build a stage for them to speak to the world.

Q. At COP-30 last year, developed countries in the European Union proposed the removal of fossil fuel usage, while developing countries like India have taken a completely different stance. With so many countries taking opposite approaches to sustainability, how can we reach a middle ground on climate change?

Jason Knauf: Yes, in the last couple of years, the conversation about phasing out fossil fuels has dominated the climate negotiations. And I have lived in India for four years, too, and we cannot ask people not to grow their economies by relying on fossil fuels, as was done in the UK and the US. There is a climate justice argument that you can’t simply shut down the economy quickly. While India didn’t agree to the language of scrapping fossil fuels last year, it simultaneously massively increased its renewable power capacity. It met its 2030 goals on renewable transmission five years early.

Therefore, if India and other countries in the Global South continue to invest rapidly in the renewable energy transition, debates over fossil fuels will become less important in the coming years.

Q. Recently, India and the UK signed trade deals, so how do you think the two countries can balance rapid economic growth with climate commitments?

Jason Knauf: For a long time, we have talked about climate action, sustainability as some kind of sacrifice and that you have to put growth to one side if you want to achieve it. And those arguments are done. Clean energy is now cheap and reliable. As nations, if we can exchange information and technology on how to develop clean energy systems and base our trade on circular, not throwaway, products.

I think all of these deals are opening doors; whatever sector it is, they will be very positive for the sustainability journey. And we have to make it so. We can’t be naive about the challenges. There’ll be some hard things to work through. But it’s really, really positive that Earthshot is coming to India this year, following last year’s trade deal between the two countries.

Q. Since its inception in 2020, most of the Earthshot Prize winners are from India. How are today’s winners utilising their brand value to strengthen sustainability and conservation?

Jason Knauf: We have built a common platform for all winners and finalists to stay in touch. Once you have won an Earthshot Prize, you never get the chance to leave it. The winners are leveraging their brand value to raise capital to support farmers in rural areas through their innovations. We keep, you know, working with you year after year. The amount of private capital S4S is raising from Aurangabad is incredible. The Indian winners and finalists have been the most passionate and engaged, and they are amazing ambassadors for us, not just in India but also globally.