Uttar Pradesh industries, that have lagged in use of green technologies, are now showing interest in adding to national efforts to build a consensus on India’s position at Copenhagen meet on climate change in December 2009.
With a view to prepare the local industry towards this issue, the Confederation of the Indian Industry (CII) proposes to hold a ‘National Conference on Carbon Credits –Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) beyond 2012’ here on January 21, 2010.
“There is nothing new about carbon credits for the industry in India. But the industrial units situated in Uttar Pradesh have lagged behind in the field,” said the CII’s UP head Anil Shukla.
“We have proposed the conference in association with the Directorate of Environment, Government of Uttar Pradesh,” he said, adding, “We propose to make thought provoking presentations and discussions on the issue to educate the state’s industry.”
“A number of our industrial units are using green technologies and thus are eligible to get carbon credits under the provisions of Kyoto Protocol. We need to make them aware about the whole issue,” he said.
“Some sugar mills have already applied for carbon credits. A number of other industrial units including paper mills, power generation plants and processing units having investment of over Rs 100 crore need to be brought on a common platform to make use of the carbon credits,” he said. “Some textile industry units using green technologies may also qualify to get the carbon credits,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“Some sugar mills have already applied for carbon credits. A number of other industrial units including paper mills, power generation plants and processing units having investment of over Rs 100 crore need to be brought on a common platform to make use of the carbon credits,” he said. “Some textile industry units using green technologies may also qualify to get the carbon credits,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}The Principal Secretary Environment Alok Ranjan said the State Government was formulating its own State Action Plan on the pattern of National Action Plan on Climate Change. “We will soon send our report to the Centre on the issue,” he said. About the CII’s proposal Ranjan said the State Government had received the CII’s proposal and a decision on the issue would be taken soon.
On the other hand the CII has noted that there was an increasing pressure on the world to reach a consensus by the end of 2009 to set commitments and define actions needed to take carbon market beyond 2012. “There is need for more stringent actions than the one defined under first commitment period 2008-2012,” said the CII in the background paper prepared for the conference.
“India has transacted second highest volumes and has generated some 30 million carbon credits and has roughly 140 million to push into the world market,” it said. “India’s carbon market is growing faster than even Information Technology, bio technology and BPO sectors as 850 projects with a whopping USD 13.3 million (INR 650,000 million) are in pipeline. As per the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change, the revenue from 200 projects is estimated at USD 2 billion till 2012,” said the CII.