CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM| Top brass mulls over advantages to State

TOP BRASS of the bureaucracy today apprised itself of the possible ways to leverage the State?s advantages to augment Government?s revenue through Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in the fields of forestry, urban development, power generation, transport, agriculture and irrigation.

TOP BRASS of the bureaucracy today apprised itself of the possible ways to leverage the State’s advantages to augment Government’s revenue through Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in the fields of forestry, urban development, power generation, transport, agriculture and irrigation.

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The CDM is one of the three indirect tools suggested by the Kyoto Protocol for the developed countries to achieve their targets of reducing Green House gas emission between 2008 and 2012. The direct mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol is to take domestic action to reduce the emission level. 

However, countries that have signed the protocol – the European Union, Canada, Japan and Russia are not expected to achieve their respective targets only through domestic action and would be forced to buy Certified Emission Restriction (CER) from developing countries that are not bound by the Kyoto Protocol.

Therein lies huge potential for countries like India. The Protocol  –bound nations would need to buy CER units from more environmental- friendly projects set up in the developing countries. By reducing domestic emissions, India can earn additional revenue from developed nations.

Presently, private parties are handling most of the CDM projects in India. Of the 256 CDM projects approved by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), 15 are from Madhya Pradesh and account for only half a million tonnes out of the total 26 million tonnes of CERs involved.

During the meeting organised by the Environment Planning and Coordination Organisation (EPCO), officials including principal secretaries of various important departments underlined the need to have a CDM nodal cell in place soon. They also advocated for a high-level committee to push through the initiative at policy level.

Two presentations made by leading CDM consultants of the country including Dr Ajay Mathur of Senergy Global Limited, Delhi and Kishore Rajhans of Earnest and Young Ltd  enabled participants to understand the basic premises of the CDM and potential for its implementation in Madhya Pradesh.

The presenters mentioned that India is looked upon as one of the biggest CDM host countries in the world. K P Nyati, principal advisor of the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) pointed out that Madhya Pradesh has a huge potential for CDM projects and the State Government could very well become an initiator in the field.

Senior officials asked a number of questions regarding viability and implementation worthiness of the projects especially in a Government setting.

Smita Ghate Chandra, managing director of the MP Financial Corporation,  who coordinated the meeting, mentioned that a hands-on training for officials of various department would be held soon to involve them into the process more closely.

Among the senior officials who attended the meet were Principal Secretary (PS) Home, Satyaprakash, PS, Finance Sumit Bose, PS, Forest Avani Vaish, PS, Commerce and Industry, O P Rawat, PS, Urban Administration, Housing and Environment, P D Meena, MD, Agro Industries Development Corporation J N Kansotia, Commissioner, Budget Kanta Rao, MD of Central Sector Power Distribution Company Ajit Kesri, executive director of EPCO, JS Mathur, Chairman of the MP Pollution Control Board Prof PS Dubey, Additional PCCFs R N Saxena and R K Dave and others.