It was about time India had its own Carbon Market. The terms Carbon Credit, Carbon Trading, and Carbon Offsets are not new to Indian businesses and stakeholders. Carbon Credit trading has been practiced in the Indian market for almost two decades. Between 2010 and June 2022, India issued 35.94 million carbon credits or nearly 17% of all voluntary carbon market credits issued globally.  

The two phenomena- Net Zero Emissions and Carbon Credits are directly linked to each other. A country or any business can achieve Net Zero Emissions when the emissions in the atmosphere released by it are counterbalanced by the removal of carbon of equal amounts, in simple words, output balances the input.  Carbon was identified as an item which could be traded in the international market during the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. Carbon Credits can be defined as the credits one generates when their project assists in the removal of carbon from the atmosphere.  

The Government of India has announced its target to become a Net Zero Emissions country by 2070 at COP26 in 2021. Recently, as one more step towards achieving the Net Zero Target and regulating the country’s very own Carbon Economy, the Government of India released a notification for the framework of ‘Carbon Credit Trading Scheme 2023’. Let’s quickly go through the scheme to understand the structure and functionality of the Indian Carbon Market.  

20 to 22 members will make up the National Steering Committee (NSC), which will be led by the secretary for the Ministry of Power as ex-officio-Chairperson and the secretary for the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) will be the ex-officio Co-chairperson. 

• Under NSC, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) will finalize procedures for institutionalizing the Indian carbon market and formulate the rules and regulations.
• The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) will oversee all trading activity in the Indian carbon market, while Grid-India will serve as the register.
• The BEE will be the administrator of the carbon market, as well as the method for accrediting any agency to serve as an authorized carbon verification agency, including eligibility requirements.

MITCON has been in the space of Carbon Credit since its inception, for almost 17 years and has vast experience in developing projects under Clean Development Mechanism, Verified Carbon Standard, Gold Standard, and I-RECs. MITCON is excited to see the developments on Indian Carbon Market and possible opportunities to work with various stakeholders involved. 

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