India’s Ministry of Power launches carbon market framework


NEW DELHI: As part of climate action to meet India’s goals through its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the 2015 Paris Agreement, brisk efforts are apace to develop an Indian Carbon Market (ICM).

India’s Ministry of Power has notified a framework for an ICM to enable individual entities in the country to accomplish notified reductions in carbon intensities.

‘The objective of the ICM is to decarbonise the Indian economy by pricing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions through trading of the Carbon Credit Certificates,’ according to a fact sheet on these plans prepared by the Ministry of Power here.

This Ministry’s Bureau of Energy Efficiency, along with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change are developing the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme for this purpose.

‘The trading of carbon credits will take place based on the performance in energy sectors in India. Further, it is envisaged that there will be a concurrent development of a voluntary mechanism to encourage GHG reduction from non
-obligated sectors,’ the factsheet said.

At a stakeholder consultation on accredited carbon verifiers under the ICM held in New Delhi, Abhay Bakre, Director-General of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, said, ‘The ICM can be a vehicle for mobilising a significant portion of investments required by the Indian economy to transition towards low-carbon pathways.’

The Ministry of Power said that ‘by accelerating the transition to a low carbon economy, the ICM will facilitate in achieving the NDC goal of reducing emissions intensity by GDP of 45 percent by 2030 against 2005 levels”.

Source: Emirates News Agency