Carbon trading: MoEF launches pilot scheme in 3 states

“The Ministry of Environment and Forests,in association with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) of Gujarat,Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu,has initiated a large scale pilot programme to design a particulate emissions trading regulatory regime for industry. The proposed Market Based Emissions Trading Scheme will set a new model for environmental regulation in India,” the Ministry added.

The Gujarat Pollution Control Board is understood to have begun a survey of industries,their air pollution levels and related machinery at about 400 units in Sachin Industrial Cluster,Surat,and Narol,Ahmedabad,which officials said have numerous textile units that “contributes to particulate matter pollution in the populous cities of Ahmedabad and Surat”.

For example,between 2003 and 2009,the air over Ahmedabad had roughly four times more harmful particulate material than is considered safe by the government. The pollution load was twice as much compared to Vapi and Ankleshwar,considered among the most polluted industrial areas in India.

State Environment and Forests Secretary S K Nanda and GPCB member-secretary Hardik Shah currently sit as members of the Governing Committee,Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

The ETS was proposed by two professors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US,one from Harvard University and another from the Harvard Kennedy School. Two of these are board members of an organisation called J-PAL,which is expected to evaluate the scheme.

J-PAL and the GPCB have,in fact,signed an MoU under which both parties agreed to “roll out continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS) and then an emissions trading scheme in four phases over 2011 and 2012”.

A detailed countrywide project report prepared in February 2011 pegs the total cost at Rs 360 crore — the GPCB’s share in this would be Rs 98 lakh for two phases between March 2011 and June 2014.