UN panel recommendation may make India lose half carbon credits

A United Nations panel recommendation this week to change carbon credits calculating methodology for hydroflourocarbons (HFCs) can result in India losing half of its credits valid till 2012.

Updated on: Jul 4, 2010, 18:07:28 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A United Nations panel recommendation this week to change carbon credits calculating methodology for hydroflourocarbons (HFCs) can result in India losing half of its credits valid till 2012.

Certified Emissions Reduction Units (CERs), also called carbon credits, for the destruction of hydroflourocarbons (HFC) represent over 80 percent of the total credits issued till date under UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to India. HFC has highest credit value, as a tonne of HFC emission saved means 11,700 carbon credits earned.

A coalition of green groups working under the banner CDM Watch had tabled a formal request calling on the UN's climate change secretariat to overhaul the CDM and crack down on alleged “gaming” of the system that has allowed some firms to benefit from increasing their greenhouse gas emissions.

They alleged that companies in developing world such as India and China have got incentive to increase green house gas emissions to earn more credits. In India, four companies including public sector Gujarat Fluorochemicals have earned credits for capturing and destroying the greenhouse gas HFC-23, a by-product resulting from the production of the refrigerant gas HCFC-22.

A UN panel on methodologies called Meth Panel this week said that many companies were producing more HFC for a tonne of HCFC produced than technically feasible. Some companies were only producing HCFC in a bid to earn credits, the panel said in a report to CDM executive board. The board is expected to consider the report at end of July.

Seeking a proper investigation into the carbon credits earned, the panel has recommended revision of the rate at which carbon credits from HFC is calculated. As against the present waste rate of three percent of the total chemical burnt, the panel has recommended a rate of 1.4 per cent.

“The new rate suggested, if accepted by CDM Executive Board, could mean Indian companies losing 50 per cent of the credits earned,” said Anmol Jaggi, Director, Gensol Consultants, a firm that helps in calculating carbon credits. It would mean a loss of 130 million carbon credits by 2012.

“If the UN CDM Executive Board wants to reinstall the integrity of the mechanism it has no other choice than to put current crediting methodology on hold with immediate effect and cease issuance of all credits for the destruction of HFC-23 untill the panel has fully investigated the issue,” said Eva Filzmoser, director of the NGO group CDM Watch.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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