Can You Help Your Kid Be Carbon-Neutral Even Before They’re Born?

There’s an interesting piece of research from the IEA (International Energy Agency): if the world becomes carbon-neutral by 2050 (that might be a big if), babies born in the 2020s will emit 10 times less carbon than their grandparents. For something like this to happen, there’d have to be 4x more solar and wind power capacity, than how much is currently there, every year by 2030. Plus, a lot of elements of countries would have to be electrified, like cars, industry machines and building heating. Elon Musk is rubbing his hands in glee.

And if parents are really planning to make the future for their kids a bit brighter and safer, could they think about making their child carbon-neutral? That’s what a couple in Tamil Nadu have been thinking about doing and, quite possibly, have done for their young one.

Dinesh Kshatriyan and Janaganandhini Ramaswamy are said to have acquired two acres of land in Tamil Nadu and transformed it into a thriving food forest with around 6000 trees, shrubs and plants. All that greenery might mean that more carbon could be absorbed to negate whatever the kid does as they grow up.

And beyond that, to account for whether the kid is carbon-neutral, there might be an NFT minted called NOVA. You might have heard of NFTs as one of those things that people buy without really understanding much of what it is, but the idea, in this case, is that this would be a digital record of the trees planted and what the impact is.

The underlying tech of NFTs is Blockchain, so, it could mean that there’s a public ledger, where anyone could verify the claims about the kid offsetting carbon. So, if the NOVA NFT represents 6000 trees being planted, people might be able to see what trees are planted, their location and how carbon would be absorbed over time. So, no more empty rhetoric, if someone is claiming to offset carbon, the proof would be visible and immutable. If Taylor Swift has been named one of the most polluting celebs of our time, might she want to look into this?

Maybe, other parents might want to get in on this action. It’s said that NOVA is part of the platform the couple started called “Seerakku” to gamify Blockchain for offsetting carbon emissions. The couple is said to have an ambition of having at least 50 trees planted for every baby born in India. India was said to have about 23 million births in 2023, so based on the vision, that would mean 115 million trees planted. Doable? Maybe, parents would pay anything and do anything if it makes their kids look cool.

It might be interesting to gamify environmental sustainability. Maybe, that could lead to the rise of forest cities in India.

Of course, something, like NFTs, might be energy-intensive. But, there might be some innovations to make even that a bit more green. But, maybe, afforestation might be a band aid solution that would need other initiatives to complement.
 
Concepts, like afforestation or reforestation, have been spoken about for many ever since they were in school. But, for some reason, it never plays out beyond rhetoric. Maybe, people just don’t know how to actually get it done. Would they have to go physically plant seeds and grow trees? Would they have to visit a forest daily? 

Technology just might make this cool and realistic. If there’s a platform where people could buy NFTs for tree-planting projects, where there’s a geo-tagged tree and data from IoT sensors or drones, boom! This just became real. Maybe, there could be some kind of carbon accounting tool for businesses powered by Blockchain. Or even if it’s individual-focused, could it be something, like CRED, where tokens could be earned and exchanged for benefits, like discounts or access to some products?

Or could the thirst for social credibility lead to a LinkedIn-esque sustainability profile, where people try to blow their own trumpet as often as possible? Or could India have a #TeamTrees style initiative – like the one set up by Mark Rober and James Donaldson (MrBeast) – where people could directly fund rural afforestation with Blockchain maintaining the transparency?

It’s said that, in 2023, VC funding for ClimateTech in India hit about $1.3 billion. As a comparison, it’s said that the US is the top ClimateTech financing market with about $6.7 billion mobilized in H12024 and China at about $5 billion in the same timeframe. So, there might be market opportunities afoot for funding.

Maybe, the whole India-wanting-to-achieve-net-zero-emissions-by-2070 aspect could be an impetus for startups to try and investors to look into. But, 2070 is, like, 5 decades away, so it might sound too futuristic. 

So, what’s the legacy you’re going to be leaving behind long after you’re gone?