Gujarat leads with 17.28% of India’s carbon credits

The theme of World Environment Day-2012 is, ‘Green Economy: Does it include you?’ Yes, Gujarat is very much part of the ‘Green Economy’. It has an impressively large number of ‘clean development mechanism’ (CMD) projects that have made it India’s biggest earner of certified emissions reduction (CER) credits.

The number of CMD projects in Gujarat and the state’s CER earnings are much higher than those of Argentina, Israel and some other countries of the world. The state has earned CERs credits worth of Rs3,486 crore or 505.19 million euros.

So far, the 255 CDM projects in Gujarat have earned 12.63 crore CER credits (1 CER=4 euro=Rs276.04). The state may be third in India in the number of CDM projects it has but is ahead of all other states in CER earnings.

The National Clean Development Mechanism Authority (NCDMA) under the Union government’s ministry of environment & forest has, so far, approved 2,231 CDM projects in the country. The total CER credits earned by these are around 73.08 crore which are worth Rs20,173 crore or 2.92 billion euros.

Of the total CDM projects approved in India, 11.42% (or 255 projects) are in Gujarat which has so far earned CERs worth of Rs3,486.38 crore or 505.19 million euros. Gujarat’s share in the country’s total CERs earned is 17.28%.

However, China is much ahead of India in number of CDM projects as well as in CER earnings. The expected average annual CER credits earned from registered projects in India stand at around 6.51 crore, estimated to be worth Rs1,800 crore or 260 million euros.

India contributes around 10.92% to the world’s average annual CERs but China leads with 64.24% share (38.33 crore). Of the total CDM projects in the world, India’s share is 20.01% while China leads with a 48.53% share. However, industries in Gujarat are a bit worried as the value of CER credits has been slashed by two-third in the last four years.  “A few years back, a CER was traded for 12 euros. Today it is worth around 4 euros. Even consultants and experts who had minted money in carbon credits a few years back, have disappeared,” said a carbon credit expert and MD of Sintex Industries, SM Dangayach. Shailesh Telang, founder of GreenCleanGuide, a green portal dedicated to providing all information under the environment, energy and sustainability domain, believes that Indian industries should continue to address climate change.

“India is a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol which is an international agreement on greenhouses gas (GHG) reduction targets. Kyoto protocol was signed in 1997 and it assigned GHG reduction targets to developed countries for the 2008-2012 period, known as the first commitment period. This ends in December this year.

The second commitment period would start from January 1, 2013 and would extend up to either 2017 or 2020,” he said. According to Telang, developed countries had clearly mentioned in the conference that they will sign the treaty on legally-binding GHG emission reduction targets only after developing countries like India and China accept emission cuts.

“As per the Durban agreement, the participating countries have agreed to decide on the modalities and procedures of the second commitment period by 2015 and implement it from 2020. Thus, it is expected that big emitters like China, India and the US will have legal emission commitments post-2020,” he said.