WEALTH FROM WASTE – India Inc tops charts with 53% of global carbon credits
demand
Earned Rs 1,500 cr last year by selling to developed country clients.
ABHISHEK KAPOOR
GANDHINAGAR
H AVING cornered more than half of the global total in tradable certified
emis sion reduction (CERs) this month, India’s dominance in carbon trading
under the clean development mechanism (CDM) of the UN Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) is beginning to influence business dynamics in the country.
India isn’t obliged to cut emissions, as its energy consumption is low.
While this may change 10 years from now, companies are jumping on the CER
bandwagon. Enterprises are adopting cleaner, sustainable technologies. In
some cases, as reported by this newspaper, revenues from waste exceed those
from the main business.
“We have been educating associations, NGOs, individual companies about the
significance of CDM. It’s a win-win proposition and all should take benefit
of it,” says R.K. Sethi, director-climate change, Ministry of Environment
and Forests.
Adds Sudipta Das, partner-risk and business solution, Ernst and Young:
“Initially managements were not willing to invest money and time as they
weren’t sure of the potential. Then we joined hands with CII, FICCI, and
other associations for an awareness drive. Apart from the preidentified CDM
projects, we also brushed up those that companies conceived, to make them
feasible and clear the scrutiny of validators.” The result: India Inc
pocketed Rs 1,500 crore last year just by selling carbon credits to devel
oped-country clients. This is a fraction of the Rs 18,000 crore experts
estimate will be India’s share in global carbon trading by 2012.
In the pipeline are projects that would create upto 306 million tradable
CERs. Analysts claim if more companies absorb clean technologies, total CERs
with India could touch 500 million.
Though small compared to the Chinese total, the lead has been heartening for
industry, government and experts alike. “Though China has an edge over the
longer term, we were proactive with initiatives that popularised the concept
resulting in faster processing and sanction,” says Sethi. As head of the
Indian Designated National Authority (DNA), Sethi oversees verification and
sanction of feasible and sus tainable CDM projects.
Of the 391 projects sanctioned, the UN FCCCany country. In114effortsIndia,
the high has registered from est for its at popularising the concept, the
government has got support from the German Ministry of Economic Coop eration
and Development through the Indo German Energy Programme.
Waiting in the aisles is a mix of central and state PSUs like ONGC, GACL,
and private companies like Reliance. Small entrepreneurs with creative
projects are also lining up.
The list of CDM projects approved by the In dian CDM authority makes for
interesting reading. A project in an Andhra Pradesh vil lage plans to
produce 3 MW power from chicken droppings. Another is to produce 1.5 MW from
rice husk. These projects qualify for CDM as they save on fossil fuels that
would have otherwise gone into the production of that much power. To be
feasible, a CDM project should cut down emissions (using clean tech nology),
or replace carbon in nature (using re newable energy resources).
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