Govt starts Green Credits scheme under Mission LiFE

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In what would push environment-friendly practices among individuals, farmer goups, small scale, urban and rural local institutions and the private sector, the Centre launched a ‘Green Credits Programme’ on Wednesday under Mission LiFE, one of India’s nationally determined contributions (NDC) to the UNFCC.

The ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC) on Tuesday, issued the draft ‘Green Credit Programme Implementation Rules 2023’ under the Environment Protection Act, 1986. The draft has proposed generation and trading of green credits.

The move follows Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcement in her union budget speech this year where she announced the creation of a Green Credit Programme.

The mechanism will be implemented in phases. Initially, 2-3 activities from the eight sectors are being considered for designing and piloting the Programme. More activities will be added from the selected sectors subsequently, the draft said.

The eight identified sectors include increasing the green cover across the country through tree plantation and related activities; water conservation and harvesting, water-use efficiency; natural and regenerative agricultural practices and land restoration, soil health and nutritional value of food produced; waste management and steps for reducing air pollution and other pollution abatement activities.

The draft has also included mangrove conservation and restoration-based green credit to promote measures for the conservation and restoration of mangroves. Ecomark-based green credit encourages manufacturers to obtain eco-mark labels for their goods and services and sustainable building and infrastructure-based Green Credit encourage the construction of buildings and other infrastructure using sustainable technologies and materials.

The guidelines for the establishment and operation of the trading platform shall be issued by the green credits administrator with the approval of a steering committee.

“The trading platform for the exchange of green credits shall be established by the trading service provider accredited by the administrator in accordance with the approved guidelines,” said the draft.

Manish Dabkara, chairman and MD, EKI Energy Services, said Green Credit is over and above the current discourse of carbon credits, and will be one of the co-benefits of the Green Credit Programme. “One of the major highlights of the draft notification is to provide regulatory provisions to account for individual and community actions, besides corporate and businesses, and incentivise them,” Dabkara said. BSE-listed EKI is a leading carbon credit developer and supplier in India, and claims to have 90 per cent share credits originating from the country.