If you move around in the right crowds, as I do, you hear frequent talk of buying carbon offsets to mitigate naughty environmental habits, such as the use of a Lear jet or stretch Hummer. The more ambitious among us, like the Rolling Stones, aim for carbon neutrality - that zero point where one's carbon dioxide emissions are balanced out, or offset, by an equal use of renewable energy sources.
And now, apparently, many people and companies are stretching out their dollars and Euros by investing in clean carbon projects in India, which has grabbed a big chunk of the $5 billion carbon offsets market in the developing world.
According to statistics available with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), out of 844 projects registered under the CDM [clean development mechanism] scheme, as many as 289 are from India, accounting for 34.24 per cent of the total. China ranks next with 131 projects, or 15.52 per cent, followed by Brazil with 113, or 13.39 per cent, Mexico with 97, or 11.49 per cent and Chile with 21, or 2.49 per cent.
Indian companies like Reliance Industries, Tata Motors and Tamil Nadu Newsprint have emission reduction approvals (see a complete list of projects here). According to a World Bank expert quoted in the article, Charles Cornier, India is increasingly seen as a cost-effective way for Westerners to offset their carbon emissions.
[India] offers a much cheaper option for them to meet their carbon emission targets, the World Bank expert said. Firms from developed countries like the US and Australia, which have not signed the Kyoto Protocol, are also getting sensitive about their "green" image due to pressures from investors and scrambling to cut emissions on a voluntary basis. "Buying carbon credits from CDM projects in developing countries like India is a commercially attractive proposition for these enterprises," Cormier said.
In India's Economic Times, a columnist argues that carbon credits, aka Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), should not be taxed:
Countries like India and China are capitalising on huge market for CERs as they are not under any obligation to reduce the emission level and are in a rapid industrialisation phase. The value of CER trade in India is expected to be to the tune of $50-100 million every year and approximately 100 companies in India are in the fray.
Read more about India's trade in carbon credits in Business Line.
Earlier on SAJAforum:
