DTE - Down To Earth October 1st - 15th 2023

INVESTIGATION
1-15 OCTOBER, 2023
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SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL
GOVERNANCE
AAETI
INTEGRATED ONLINE AND ONSITE

TRAINING PROGRAMME ON
ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACT ASSESSMENT
DATES
Basic Learning (Online)
DECEMBER 5-14, 2023
CSE is launching an integrated online and onsite training programme on EIA. The training
programme will comprise of two parts: Basic learning (online platform) and Advanced Advanced Learning (Onsite)
learning (at our residential campus).The course is designed to provide an overall FEBRUARY 6-9, 2024
understanding of the EIA process which includes theoretical knowledge via lectures from
experts and firsthand experience through group exercises, discussions and case studies. LAST DATE TO APPLY
DECEMBER 1, 2023
PROGRAMME DESIGN
PART A: BASIC LEARNING (ONLINE) COURSE FEE

• Includes sessions on methodology for preparing an EIA, approach for baseline data Part A (online): `3,000
collection, identification and assessment of impacts alongwith the Environmental Clearance Part B (onsite):
process and understanding of EIA process and legislation from developed countries. `25,600 (Double occupancy)
• Conducted on Moodle Platform where participants will be provided with reading/audio- `28,000 (Single occupancy)
visual training material which they are expected to self-study. Full waiver on online fees for
• The course material will be for the duration of 2-3 hrs/day. participants applying for onsite
PART B: ADVANCED LEARNING (ONSITE)

• Includes practical experience on assessing impacts for different sector projects and developing WHO CAN APPLY
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environment engineers;
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researchers; academicians
• Understanding of Risk assessment studies and students aspiring
• Working on case studies through group exercises and role play. to work in the field of
• Conducted at CSE’s residential campus, Anil Agarwal Environment Training institute environment.
(AAETI) in Tijara, Alwar, Rajasthan
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Completion
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FOR ANY QUERY, Course Coordinator: programm es
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03Opening Illustrationindd.indd 3 26/09/23 5:08 PM

Founded in 1992 to arm you with knowledge
critical to shaping a better world
FOUNDER EDITOR Anil Agarwal

EDITOR Sunita Narain
MANAGING EDITOR Richard Mahapatra
Contents
INVESTIGATION
CHIEF COPY EDITOR Snigdha Das
ASSOCIATE EDITORS Aditya Misra, Rajit Sengupta
SENIOR CREATIVE DIRECTOR Ajit Bajaj
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08
Shri Krishan
PHOTO EDITOR Vikas Choudhary
PHOTO LIBRARY Anil Kumar
PRODUCTION Rakesh Shrivastava, Gundhar Das
TECH SUPPORT Rajendra Rawat, Jaidev Sharma
An unregulated carbon credit market
MULTIMEDIA Joel Michael,Aishwarya Iyer, has emerged to combat climate change
Sunny Gautam, Midhun Vijayan over the past decade, with projects
INFORMATION AND RESEARCH SUPPORT
Kiran Pandey, Susan Chacko,Madhumita Paul,
spread across the world. But its success
Sheeja Nair, Lalit Maurya, Dayanidhi Mishra and workings are shrouded in mystery
CONSULTING EDITORS Anumita Roychowdhury, at best and completely opaque at worst
Vibha Varshney
Vol 32, No 10; Total No of Pages: 60

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1-15 OCTOBER, 2023
SCIENCE AND ON
FORTNIGHTLY ENVIRONMENT
POLITICS OF FORTNIGHTLY
DEVELOPMENT, ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH Subscriber copy, not for resale `80.00
Cover illustration
carbon market is poised
DISCREDITED
A FORENSIC DIVE INTO CARBON TRADE
Yogendra Anand for a spike as the climate
crisis turns critical and
companies strive to
become net-zero emitters
01Cover.indd 1 27/09/23 12:37 PM
04-05Contents+Credits.indd 4 27/09/23 12:37 PM

50
Governments across the
world are issuing
regulations to rein in the
voluntary carbon market
to ensure accountability
and sharing of the
proceeds with
communities. But will
these work without
international rules to
regulate the market?
16
The ecosystem of 24
voluntary carbon
Communities that give critical
market involves a
support through land and labour
multitude of players
in projects that churn out carbon
to ensure that a
credits are rarely aware of the
carbon offset project
importance or monetary worth
delivers on its claims.
of their act, which raises
But it is also a world
questions about the accounting
designed by
of these transactions and the
developers, verifiers,
companies behind them
validators and
registries to make
money
04-05Contents+Credits.indd 5 26/09/23 5:18 PM

INVESTIGATION /CARBON CREDIT
THE
GREAT
CARBON
CAPTURE
06-13Cover story-carbon market_Opener & Section 1_redesigned.indd 6 26/09/23 4:53 PM

Buying and selling of carbon credits is seen as an important way to combat
climate change. The concept works by assigning credits to projects that reduce
greenhouse gases. These credits, measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent
(CO2e), then get priced and traded. People and businesses that wish to offset the
emissions generated by their activities can buy these credits and “neutralise” the
carbon footprint. But there is no “official” carbon market for this. The global
community is still discussing the rules that will govern such a trade. Instead , a
voluntary carbon market has grown at a record pace in the past decade. In this
marketplace, emission-reducing projects are registered, verified and validated, and
carbon credits traded in the hope that money from the transaction would help
mitigate emissions. Is that happening?
Down To Earth, in collaboration with the Centre for Science and Environment, Delhi,
has conducted a first-of-its-kind investigation into the workings of this emerging
market, particularly in India which generates one-fifth of the world’s carbon credits
and is at the forefront of carbon investment. The team has tracked down elusive
sellers of carbon credits and travelled to 40 villages where some of these projects are
being implemented. The investigation has been difficult because nobody in this
market wants to reveal information. The team has even been asked to sign
non-disclosure agreements before visiting project sites.
This special edition is an assessment of the carbon market and its mechanisms.
INVESTIGATION Rohini Krishnamurthy and Trishant Dev
ANALYSIS Avantika Goswami
APPRAISAL Sunita Narain
ILLUSTRATIONS Ritika Bohra and Yogendra Anand

MEN IN
BLACK
Carbon market has the potential to unlock
billions of dollars for countries in the Global
South that need financing to transition to a
low-carbon energy system and to ensure
socio-economic development of their
communities. This market is growing rapidly
and is driven by private entities, mostly
industries and businesses. But is this
voluntary carbon market working for
people and the planet?
SUNITA NARAIN
T
HE CLIMATE change crisis has now reached every country;
extreme weather events are costing all economies. It is clear that the
world is failing by many marks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
So, the idea that is gaining traction, once again, is to build a carbon market
that will allow countries and companies to buy credits by doing all things
good—from planting trees to distributing clean cookstoves to investing in
renewable energy. This market would put a price on every tonne of carbon
dioxide or the equivalent greenhouse gas avoided, reduced or sequestered,
which can then be used to offset emissions of companies and countries.
It is simple in some ways; complicated in others. Because of this carbon
market, you will be able to pick up a luxury bag that is labelled “carbon-
neutral”; or take a flight that has “offset” your emissions; or even read about
an oil or food company that has declared a “net-carbon footprint”. You may
wonder how. These items and companies become carbon-neutral by “buying”
credits—these credits are issued against activities that either reduce
greenhouse gas emissions (like building a solar plant or using an efficient
cookstove) or remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere (for instance, by
planting trees). The management of this “market” of buyers and sellers is
8 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 OCTOBER 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN


done through a paraphernalia of registries, project developers, validators,
verifiers and carbon exchanges.
The idea of carbon credit began in the first decade of the 2000s, after
the Kyoto Protocol, set up under the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change (unfccc), entered into force. Countries agreed to set up the Clean
Development Mechanism (cdm) for the purchase of carbon credits from
developing countries. But with the end of the Kyoto Protocol, this market
dried up. It was replaced by an unregulated global market of buyers and
sellers, called the voluntary carbon market.
It is hoped that soon there will be an internationally negotiated
agreement for an official carbon market. At the next Conference of the
Parties (cop28) to the unfccc to be held from November 30 to December 12,
discussion on the Article on creating the rules for the carbon market
(Article 6 of the Paris Agreement of 2015) is top billed. Once these rules are
finalised, there will be a public registry of all projects and countries will be
allowed to trade either bilaterally (under Article 6.2) or through a global
programme like what existed earlier under cdm (under Article 6.4).
This is an important way to move ahead. Countries, including India,
need financing to transition to a low-carbon energy system, and the buying
and selling of carbon credits will provide that investment. Communities—
often impoverished and also the worst victims of climate change—could
also benefit greatly from these financial transfers. Imagine these
communities planting trees and getting paid for their land and labour
through carbon credits for the carbon dioxide these trees would store! It is a
win-win scenario.
The question is if the voluntary carbon market, run today by the
private industry, is working for people and for the planet. My colleagues at
Down To Earth and the Centre for Science and Environment examine this
and find there is much that needs to be done to set this market in order. In
fact, it is a can of worms. This is not what we need in this time of
existential crisis.
Read on to know why I say this.
DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 OCTOBER 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 9



DUE
CREDIT
India’s lucrative carbon market is worth over
$1.2 billion. It will only grow as the crisis of climate
change becomes more urgent and companies
strive to attain net-zero emission goals
n India has 1,451 n Carbon n Indian entities

projects registered credits issued to have already
or under various Indian entities earned about
stages of are worth 11% of $652 million from
consideration at the India’s annual carbon credits
world’s two leading greenhouse gas used to offset
carbon registries emissions in 2021 emissions

O
N AUGUST 4, India’s power minister The government’s position appeared to have
Raj Kumar Singh announced at an changed to an extent by October that year, when
event organised by his ministry that Singh on the sidelines of the Fifth Assembly of the
the country was open to the export of carbon International Solar Alliance told the media that
credits, though he did qualify this by saying that Indian carbon credits would be allowed to be sold
trading would be done with countries that buy in both domestic and overseas markets. “Those
green hydrogen from India. The announcement carbon credits that go to make up our own ndcs
came after months of toing and froing on the [nationally determined contributions under the
issue. It started in August last year, when during Paris Agreement] we would want to keep for
a debate in the Parliament on the Amendments to ourselves. But anything beyond that can be sold
the Energy Conservation Act, which proposed the anywhere in the world,” he said. On June 28,
creation of a domestic carbon market, Singh said 2023, the government issued a notification,
that India would not allow any export of carbon detailing the framework of Indian carbon market
credits until the nation meets its climate goals. under the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme, 2023,
(Under the Paris Agreement of 2015, India has but does not include voluntary markets (see
pledged to reduce the emissions intensity of its ‘Saving the carbon bubble’, p50)
gdp by 45 per cent by 2030, from the 2005 level.) .
“These credits will have to be generated and ALL SET TO GROW
bought by domestic industries,” Singh had said. Carbon credit is already big buck business and
The minister’s comment did not go down well India has a substantial share of the market for
with the private players engaged in the carbon voluntary carbon credits. Investigation by Down
market. Within days, the share price of one of To Earth and the Centre for Science and
India’s top carbon credit developer and suppliers Environment (dte-cse) shows that till June 2023,
eki Energy Services Ltd plunged. On August 18, the country had 860 registered and a total of
2022, Manish Dabkara, chairperson and 1,451 projects under various stages of
managing director of eki Energy, told Mongabay, consideration at the world’s two leading carbon
a news portal, that Singh’s comment was not crediting programmes, Verra and Gold Standard,
applicable to the voluntary carbon market. which certify projects to receive credits. India is a
CREDIT
CARDS Renewable Energy
Over 32% of all credits
Agriculture
Projects include meth-
Forestry and
Land Use
Household and
Community
Carbon credits are issued in the voluntary ane reduction activities Focus on ecosystem- This category has
carbon market are for from paddy fields, based approaches to drawn the third-larg-
issued for nine types improved irrigation.
renewable energy. reduce emissions and/ est share of issued
of projects that either About 90 per cent of Manure methane or increase removal of credits. Most of the
avoid greenhouse these credits are for management (78%) GHGs from land-use credits are earned by
gas (GHG) emissions grid-connected and rice emission activities, such as clean cookstove
electricity generation reduction (17.5%) afforestation, improved projects, and there
by allowing a from renewable sources, projects make up forest management and are over 1,200
switchover to clean with wind (49%), hy- for the majority of wetland restoration. This clean cookstove
sources or those that dropower (33%), and credits issued. US and category attracts the projects registered
centralised solar (15%) China lead in terms of largest share of credits; with major
remove/sequester being most common credit issuance under most are in the US, Indo- programmes
the already- agriculture nesia, Brazil and Peru
emitted GHGs

big player even in terms of the volume of carbon other commodities; Michelin Group, a French
credits. Verra and Gold Standard—Verra, set up multinational tyre manufacturer; and Shell, a
by a group of environmental and business leaders, British multinational oil and gas company.
is headquartered in Washington, DC; Gold The market is opaque, to say the least. What
Standard was founded by a group of non-profits is not at all clear is the price at which the carbon
and is based in Geneva—control roughly 90 per credits have been sold. The transactions are
cent of the independent (non-governmental) treated as “commercial” and hence confidential—
carbon credits issued across the world. Almost convenient for a market which works purportedly
one-fifth—or 298 million—of these credits have for the planetary good.
been issued to Indian entities. Each carbon credit According to Ecosystem Marketplace, a US-
represents 1 tonne of carbon dioxide or the based research organisation, the total recorded
equivalent greenhouse gas (CO2e) avoided, transactions globally in 2021 were $1.98 billion
reduced or removed (market terminology for (R16,342 crore), against which 493 million credits
sequestration). This would mean the carbon were either issued or retired. This would mean
credits issued to Indian entities are worth almost the average price of a carbon credit was $4 (R330)
10 per cent of the country’s annual greenhouse in 2021. In India, dte-cse investigation shows that
gas emissions in 2020. the price would range from $2 to $10 (R165-R824)
Of this, some 163 million credits have been per credit that have been retired till now.
“retired” by May 2023. Meaning, the companies Assuming that the global average price is
that had got the carbon credits issued have sold $4 per credit, India’s carbon market is valued at
these to other companies and the buyers have $1.2 billion (R9,894 crore)—or possibly more given
claimed emission offsets against the credits. For the current market rates. If one assesses the value
once, India has beaten China, which has retired of India’s retired credits, the sellers must have
100 million credits till May 2023. dte-cse realised as much as $652 million (R5,376 crore). So,
investigation shows that these carbon credits sold India already has a lucrative market, which
by Indian entities have been bought by developers believe will only grow as the crisis of
companies like Vitol Asia pte Ltd, a Singapore- climate change becomes more urgent and
based business that trades in oil and gas among companies strive to attain net-zero emission goals.
Transportation Waste Industrial and Chemical Carbon Capture

About 1% of Management Commercial Processes and Storage
all registered Projects in this Mostly includes Most listed Includes projects that
projects belong category mainly coal-mine methane projects are capture and store
to transportation involve flaring or capture projects those that carbon. The number
sector. Most of other use of land- from the US, China recover and of projects in this
the projects are fill methane. The and Germany. Other destroy ozone- category is currently
focused on electric US and China projects include depleting low, but is expected
vehicles and have two-thirds waste heat recovery, substances. to grow as there is
charging, as well as of the projects industrial energy Over 90% of a push for carbon
energy efficiency with issued efficiency and these projects capture technologies,
for public credits electricity generation originate from including direct air
transportation from natural gas the US capture.

14-15Nabard AD27.6X39.8Cm Spread.indd 14 25/09/23 3:56 PM

14-15Nabard AD27.6X39.8Cm Spread.indd 15 25/09/23 3:56 PM

IT’S A
COSY
CLUB
Voluntary carbon market is a sophisticated
ecosystem. It involves a multitude of players to
ensure that a carbon offset project delivers on its
claims—that it avoids or removes greenhouse
gases from the atmosphere. But in this cosy
carbon club, conversations take place behind
closed doors and no one wants to talk about the
prices. It’s a world designed by developers,
verifiers, validators and registries to make money
16-22Cover story-carbon market_Section 2_redesigned.indd 16 26/09/23 5:20 PM

n The price of n Globally,2 registries n The price of
a carbon credit with 6,481 projects carbon credits is
is strictly have issued carbon dictated by
decided credits for avoiding/ market factors
between the slashing 1.4 billion that do not
buyer and tonnes of emissions. necessarily
seller, who Annual transaction of serve the
trade behind the market was $2 purpose of
closed doors billion in 2021 decarbonisation

I
N INDIA (as in most other countries), no ers as well. Project developers need to get their
government database exists on the number projects and claims about carbon offsets “inde-
of projects that have been signed by different pendently” verified before these can be listed in
entities for carbon credits. The information is only the registries. They hire validation and verifica-
available with global carbon registries. tion bodies, who use different methodologies for
The biggest global registry, called Verified different types of avoided or removal projects. It
Carbon Standard Program (vcs) is run by Verra, is only after these auditors give their reports that
headquartered in Washington, DC. Data with the the project can be registered and credits can be
Berkeley Carbon Trading Project of the Univer- issued. In India, two such validation and verifica-
sity of California, US, shows that vcs has 64 per tion companies are Bengaluru-based epic Sus-
cent of the independent (non-governmental) cred- tainability Services and Delhi-based Carbon
its issued globally. Gold Standard is the second Check (India) Pvt Ltd. The project developer also
biggest global registry, followed by American Car- pays for the verification of the project.
bon Registry (acr) and Climate Action Reserve The other player is the buyer—and there are
(car), formerly California Climate Action Regis- many in the market who need these carbon offset
try. A relatively new player is Qatar-based Global projects to set aside their greenhouse gas emis-
Carbon Council (gcc) registry. It was founded in sions. These range from Gucci to Disney to Micro-
2016 and has since approved nine projects, a soft to oil majors like Shell. Buyers of carbon
number of which are related to renewable energy. credits can buy from various carbon exchanges,
gcc claims that it has big plans for the future. like the London-based Carbon Trade eXchange
The registries are organisations that make (ctx), or can directly negotiate with project devel-
standards and guidelines for project development, opers. In 2020, oil major Shell launched a joint
verification and trading. They also provide a plat- venture with project developer eki Energy to de-
form for the project developer, which can be a pri- velop nature-based solution projects in India. The
vate or public entity, to register their project and investment amount, as reported by media, is a
for these to be verified. The registry then issues substantial $1.6 billion.
carbon credits for verified projects that meet the What is missing in this market ecosystem are
criteria and demonstrate greenhouse gas reduc- the real owners of the project. These could be a
tion or removal. company that owns a solar project or a commu-
The project developer, which designs the pro- nity on whose land trees have been planted. In
ject and is responsible for its implementation as this cosy carbon club, there is no real place for
well as monitoring, ensures that the credits meet such people. And this is where our story begins.
the standards for reduction or removal of green- Before this, let’s understand the size of the
house gas emissions. The carbon credits that market, the types of project this market invests
they earn from these registered projects can in and what we know of the prices.
then be traded and used by companies to offset
their emissions and meet climate goals. Accord- OF SIZE, PROJECTS
ing to the “State of the Carbon Developer Eco- AND PRICES
system” report by UK-based market research As per information available with the Berkeley
organisation Abatable, 15 top project developers Carbon Trading Project, together Verra and Gold
had in their kitty 35 per cent of the carbon cred- registries have 6,481 carbon credit projects glob-
its issued globally in 2022. Three Indian compa- ally and have issued 1.4 billion credits. According
nies made it to the top 15 project developers to US-based market research organisation, Eco-
list—EnKing International (now eki), system Marketplace, annual transactions of the
Jaiprakash Power Ventures and Himachal Bas- market was almost $1.98 billion in 2021 alone.
pa Power Company. Of them, eki has seen a phe- Carbon credits are issued for two categories of
nomenal growth of 40 per cent year on year, with projects—those that avoid greenhouse gases be-
34.2 million tonnes of carbon credits issued in cause they allow for switching to clean sources
198 projects (see ‘Global stocktake’, p22). and those that remove, or sequester, the already
In this market ecosystem there are other play- emitted greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 22 >>


Billion-dollar business
The workings of voluntary carbon
market and its ecosystem
1
3
PROJECT DEVELOPER
Designs, implements, and
P LY manages carbon credit SID
P projects E
SU
2 4
VALIDATOR & VERIFIER REGISTRY

Third-party validator Issues and maintains
and verifier of emission carbon credit
reduction information
TRADER CARBON EXCHANGE

Purchases and sells Platform where carbon
bulk credits credits are traded
EM
D
AN DE
D SI
END BUYER
Purchases credits to
offset emissions
1 Project developer hires a 3 Developer applies for 5 Developer trades

validation and verification project registration with carbon credits in
body (VVB) to audit its claimed the registry the market
emissions reductions
4 Registry issues carbon 6 End buyers retire

2 VVB submits its report to credits to the developer once carbon credits to offset
the developer the project is registered their emissions

Global stocktake
At least 6,481 projects are registered or listed with the world’s two leading carbon registries, Verra and Global
Standard.Till May 2023, these registries have issued 1.4 billion carbon credits
Projects (registered and listed) Credits (issued only for registered projects)
Project Type India’s % India’s %

World India share of World India share of
world world
Agriculture 606 61 10.07% 15,401,128 570,092 3.70%
Chemical
19 1 5.26% 11,428,040 408,975 3.58%
Processes
Forestry and
703 71 10.10% 525,406,487 2,229,948 0.42%
Land Use
Household and
2,198 352 16.01% 124,132,149 11,769,724 9.48%
Community
Industrial and
238 50 21.01% 96,737,867 14,028,974 14.50%
Commercial
Renewable
2,278 891 39.11% 583,862,426 268,241,741 45.94%
Energy
Transportation 45 11 24.44% 462,757 186,613 40.33%
Waste
388 14 3.61% 58,185,213 572,135 0.98%
Management
Carbon Capture
6 0 0.00% 14,581 0 0.00%
and Storage
Grand Total 6,481 1,451 22.39% 1,415,630,648 298,008,202 21.05%
Source: Berkeley Carbon Trading Project, University of California, US
Countries and their preferred carbon-offset projects
Agriculture Carbon capture Chemical Forestry Household In

and storage processes and land use and community an
Uganda - - - - 10 86
Kenya 1* - - 12 88 -
Mexico 4 - - 104 4 1
Brazil 15 - - 31 4 1
Turkiye 2 - - - - 2
China 42 - 2 46 122 39
India 9 - 1 6 113 33
United States 182 6 341 246 2 70


Forestry, renewables in focus
Globally, most carbon credit transactions occur in forestry and land-use sectors
2021
Sector Volume Price Value
(tCO2e) ($/tonne) (mn $)
Forestry and land use 227.7 5.8 1,327.5
Renewable energy 211.4 2.26 479.1
Energy efficiency / Fuel switching 10.9 1.99 21.9
Agriculture 1 8.81 8.7
Waste disposal 11.4 3.62 41.2
Transportation 5.4 1.16 6.3
Household devices 8 5.36 43.3
Chemical processes/ industrial manufacturing 17.3 3.12 53.9
Source: Ecosystem Marketplace
What’s a carbon credit worth in the market?

The value of a carbon credit can greatly vary depending on the sector, technology or season
Afforestation/reforestation 3.78 12.71
Agriculture forestry and
other land use (AFOLU) 3.5 10.45
Minimum (US $)
Biogas 7.5 9.45 Maximum (US $)
Biomass 0.75 9.58
Energy efficiency 4.5 12.84

Energy industries - renewable 0.55
/non-renewable sources 12.0
Fugitive emissions 0.7 1.35
Landfill gas 5.95 5.95
Source: CTX, August 2023 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Seven of the top eight countries in terms of carbon credit projects are in Global South
Industrial Renewable Transportation Waste

and commercial energy management
86 - 4 1
- 5 - -
1 6 - 5
1 68 2 10
2 207 1 11
39 327 - 46
33 579 3 4
70 14 38 166
*Number of project(s); Source: Berkeley Carbon Trading Project


Global player
In 2022, three Indian project developers were among the world’s top 15 in generating carbon credits
Issued credits YoY % growth* No. of YoY % growth*
Rank Developer
(tCO2e) (credit issuance) projects (No. of projects)
1 Wildlife Works Carbon LLC, US 98.8 55 14 0
2 Finite Carbon, US 92 0 68 6
South Pole Holding Ag,
3 54.6 20 232 50
Switzerland
4 Anew Environmental LLC, US 53.9 9 119 17
5 Permian Global, UK 43.6 30 2 0
6 Infinite EARTH, Hong Kong 37.5 12 1 0
7 EnKing International, India 34.2 39 198 80
8 ACATISEMA, Colombia 29.9 19 1 0
9 CIMA, Peru 28 11 1 0
Jaiprakash Power Ventures,
10 27.8 18 2 0
India
11 Terra Global Capital, US 22.5 25 12 9
12 New Forests, Australia 21.6 0 23 10
Himachal Baspa Power
13 20.1 32 1 0
Company, India
14 Bosques Amazonicos, Peru 19.5 90 4 100
15 Ecosystem Services LLC, US 19.5 14 2 0
*Year-on-year growth data is compared against December 2021; Source: The State of the Carbon Developer Ecosystem, 2022, by Abatable
Of the 1.4 billion credits (for 1.4 billion tonnes not reflect in most cases the actual cost of the
of CO2e) the bulk has gone to renewable energy, project. This is the fundamental flaw as the cred-
followed by forestry and land-use projects. It is im- its, in most cases, are a fraction of the project
portant to note that the bulk of projects in the area cost, and therefore, only end up benefiting the
of nature-based solutions (afforestation) and in coffers of the developers and consultants and not
household devices (cookstoves) have been issued in the actual owners of the project or leading to the
countries of the South—because the cost of carbon transformation we so desperately need.
credits is much lower in these projects and so they The price can vary depending on the technol-
are cheap emission offsets for buyers. ogy used in the project. Clean cookstove projects
The price of the carbon credit is an arrange- typically sell one carbon credit for $3 to $10. In
ment strictly between the seller and buyer, and contrast, direct air carbon capture and storage
there is no database on what each project se- projects can command from $300 to $1,100 per
cures. A project can get different prices for car- credit. Most “carbon capture and storage” pro-
bon credits during its lifetime—in other words, jects are in the US. Overall, the range of prices is
the price depends on when the credits are issued, huge—carbon credits generated by a biogas pro-
when they are sold or retired, and then on the ject could be sold anywhere between $1 and $20
“market” conditions. As per data available with per credit—and this speaks volumes about the
Carbon Trade eXchange (ctx), the credits in most lack of rules in the market. It also suggests the
categories of projects were being sold between $4 need for reform so that the price of the carbon
and $12 in summer of 2023. It’s about supply and credit is based on the actual cost of the project,
demand—oversupply of credits could drive down which, in case of nature-based projects, includes
the price. But overall, the market is based on the the value of land and the labour of poor commu-
principle of arriving at the lowest cost and does nities that these projects are meant to serve.


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23Waste management- A cradle-to-cradle approach.indd 23 26/09/23 10:24 AM

UNEARTHING
REALITY 1,451. That is the number of projects implemented
across India to churn out the new-age essential
commodity—carbon credits. Industries and
businesses in the West are vying for these credits to
clean up their emissions. Over the past months,
Down To Earth and the Centre for Science and
Environment travelled to 40 villages and towns to
know how this market works and who are the people
involved in the business. At all the locations, they
found that communities, their land and labour, were
central to the projects. But community members
were almost never aware that they were working to
generate carbon credits. Worse, none had the
slightest idea that they had already relinquished their
rights to carbon credits. The projects also raised
fundamental concerns about the accounting
practices of these transactions and the
companies behind them.

n Overestimation of
emission reduction is
the main problem
with cookstove
projects. Developers
assume that people
use biomass by habit
and would also shift
to low-emission
appliances without
any incentive
n In case of a
plantation project in
Araku valley, the
project document
says that the tribal
farmers of the region
have agreed to
relinquish their
carbon rights to the
developer
n Biogas projects
underestimate the
real cost of
emission reduction.
In a project in
Madhya Pradesh,
the revenue earned
from carbon
credits is a fraction
of the capital cost
of the plant

W
HEN Down To Earth and the Centre for carbon credits. Jaiprakash Hydropower Ltd (now
Science and Environment (dte-cse) JP Power Ventures) has got 28 million credits
began its investigation, the team issued for its hydropower projects mostly in
quickly learnt that there are no rules in the Himachal Pradesh. Adani companies have been
voluntary carbon market. Worse, there is a issued 15 million carbon credits for solar projects.
shroud of secrecy. There is no government The newer companies engaged with projects
database of projects that generate carbon credits. in categories of household and community and
Individual companies are at liberty to make deals forestry and land-use do not match the credits
to get the credits issued. These companies also do generated by the large-scale energy project
not want to share much about their projects or developers, but they make up for it in terms of
their partners. They certainly will not reveal the number of projects. While international
price at which they have bought the credit and at organisation Envirofit, which manufactures
which they will sell it. This suggests that the energy-efficient cookstoves, leads the list because
market has much to hide. of highest number of credits issued, Indian
dte- cse was blocked in every enquiry it made. companies are fast catching up.
So, the first step was to deep dive into the two But these were just the initial clues. So dte-
leading global registries—Verra and Gold cse got in touch with the listed project
Standard. The databases of developers, requesting for more
these registries provide
information on projects by
PROJECT information. The team also
wanted to visit the project sites,
country and the name of the DEVELOPERS ASKED particularly where local partners
project developer. The team DTE-CSE TO SIGN (non-profits or other organisations)
had to locate each project on
the database to find its size
NON-DISCLOSURE were involved, to understand what
was happening on the ground. It
and location. Needless to say, AGREEMENTS was met with a wall of silence.
the registries are designed for BEFORE VISITING In a few cases, where the team
disaggregated information.
But it helped draw up a list
THEIR PROJECTS. received responses after repeated
calls, emails and messages to
of projects operating and being LIVELIHOODS FUNDS project developers and local
set up across India; know who
these project developers are;
DISCOURAGED VISIT partners, it was asked to sign a
non-disclosure agreement (nda)
and where the projects are TO ITS PROJECT before visiting the project; or was
located. It also gave insight AREA, CITING refused permission in writing.
into the type of projects for
which carbon credits are
INSURGENCY AS THE One project developer Livelihoods
Funds based in France emailed,
claimed. Roughly 90 per cent REASON saying that dte-cse should not
of the credits issued are for visit its project sites in Andhra
renewable energy projects across the country— Pradesh because “Most areas in Araku are cut-
from solar to wind to hydroelectric (see ‘India’s off now due to poor road conditions during the
vibrant carbon market’, p28). monsoons and insurgency is also an issue there.”
The investigation also revealed that a massive The team did not give up. From the list of
number of projects is being implemented under 1,451 projects drawn from the two global
the household and community category, largely registries, the team identified the ones in
through the distribution of improved cookstoves different categories that could be visited. Where
and setting up of biogas plants in households. the project developer had refused to share
These projects reduce greenhouse gas emissions information on the location, the team did
by reducing the amount of firewood or by further research to identify the villages that are
replacing it with biogas for cooking food. part of the carbon credit scheme.
The databases also gave information about the dte- cse’s visits to the project sites have
older companies whose energy projects have got brought out the following information. Read on.


Advertisement
27TVS - SST MAGAZINE AD.indd 27 26/09/23 10:27 AM

INDIA’S VIBRANT CARBON MARKET
India has 860 projects eligible for carbon credits.Till May 2023, the projects have bagged 298 million
credits; 55 per cent of these credits have been retired (used or claimed) by firms to offset their emissions
Projects by scope & type Registered Credits % of credits Credits % of retired
projects issued issued retired credits
Agriculture 10 570,092 0.19 511,373 0.31
Chemical processes 1 408,975 0.14 0 0
Forestry & land use 8 2,229,948 0.75 537,469 0.33
Household & community 121 11,769,724 3.95 4,525,043 2.76
Industrial & commercial 37 14,028,974 4.71 9,657,484 5.89
Renewable energy 675 268,241,741 90.01 148,460,360 90.57
Transportation 3 186,613 0.06 90,004 0.05
Waste management 5 572,135 0.19 138,807 0.08
The top 12 renewable energy project developers account for 57% credits bagged by the sector
Project developers Credits issued (in million) Major sectoral
(renewable energy) source of credits
Jaiprakash Hydro Power Limited 28 Hydropower
JSW Energy 20 Hydropower
Adani Renewable, Enterprise and 15 Solar
other Adani Group Subsidiaries
CLP India 12 Wind
Mytrah Group 12 Wind
Tamil Nadu Spinning Mills Association 11 Wind
Acme Group 11 Solar
NHPC 11 Hydropower
Wind World (India) Limited 10 Wind
Orange Renewable Power Pvt Ltd 9 Wind
ReNew Solar Power Private Limited 8 Solar
Azure Power 5 Solar
The top 12 non-renewable energy project developers deal with household and forestry, and
account for 36% credits issued to the sectors
Project developers (non-renewable) Credits issued (in million) Major sectoral source
Envirofit International Ltd 1.69 Household & Community
Value Network Venture Advisory 1.36 Household & Community
Services Pvt Ltd
Mangalam Timber Products Limited 1.22 Forestry & Land Use
G K Energy Marketers Pvt Ltd 1.13 Household & Community
Brightspark Energy Pvt Ltd 0.89 Household & Community
atmosfair gGmbH 0.82 Household & Community
EKI Energy Services Limited 0.69 Household & Community
Livelihoods Fund SICAV SIF 0.65 Forestry & Land Use
Myclimate Foundation 0.62 Household & Community
First Climate Markets AG 0.6 Household & Community
Greenway Grameen Infra Pvt Ltd 0.5 Household & Community
Greneity Infocom Service Pvt Ltd 0.42 Household & Community
Source: Berkley Carbon Trading Project; data as of May 2023

E 1
S PROJECT NAME: Dissemination of PROJECT NAME:
CA
improved cookstoves in India by Installation of high-efficient
Greenway Grameen Infra Pvt Ltd cookstoves by EnKing
(id: GS10821; status: registered with International (id: VCS2473;
Gold Standard) status: registered with Verra)
PROJECT DEVELOPER: Greenway PROJECT DEVELOPER:
Grameen Infra Pvt Ltd, Mumbai EKI Energy Services, Indore
PROJECT TYPE: Household and PROJECT TYPE: Household
community and community
LOCATION: Karnataka LOCATION: Across India
PROJECT DETAILS: 15,500 PROJECT DETAILS: 15,100
cookstoves distributed to cookstoves distributed to
IMPROVED
households dependent on firewood, households with traditional
charcoal, chips cookstoves
COOKSTOVES EMISSION REDUCTION

39,126 tonnes of CO2e per year
EMISSION REDUCTION
86,825 tonnes of CO2e per year
Source: Project document
L
ast year, Jyoti Shital Chavan, a resident of were being sold to village residents and not given
Yarnaal village in Belagavi district, was for free as the project was part of the carbon
introduced to “improved” cookstoves at a credits programme. Mathur said the company is
meeting hosted by Shri Kshethra Dharmasthala primarily a stove designer and manufacturer and
Rural Development Project (skdrdp), a charitable that the project proponents decide on the level of
trust that provides infrastructure and finance subsidies for the cookstoves based on their
through micro-credit for Karnataka’s rural business models. Mathur also pointed out that his
population. These stoves manufactured by company has not yet made any revenue from the
Greenway Grameen Infra Pvt Ltd, headquartered sale of carbon credits.
in Mumbai, were distributed to reduce The project dte-cse visited is part of the carbon
consumption of fuelwood, and thereby reduce credit scheme, Dissemination of Improved
carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Chavan already Cookstoves in India by Greenway Grameen Infra
had an lpg (liquefied petroleum gas) connection Pvt Ltd, registered with Gold Standard in 2020,
and a traditional mud chulha before the meeting. 2021 and 2022, under the identification number
Deepa Murghali, a village resident and 10821. According to the project document with the
representative appointed by skdrdp, explained to registry, this project will reach 15,500 households
Chavan that she could reduce her reliance on the and result in a reduction of 39,126 tonnes of CO2
more expensive lpg by switching to the improved or the equivalent greenhouse gas (CO2e) per
cookstove, which was being sold at a subsidised annum. This would mean that each improved
rate of `2,350 ($29). Murghali also assured stove would result in a reduction of 2.5 tonnes
Chavan that skdrdp would provide her a loan to of CO2e each year. Greenway estimates that
buy it. each stove will lead to 65 per cent fuel saving
“We show a video of women not weeping and (9.198 MWh per year in terms of energy savings)
looking happy,” Manoj Vinages, agriculture and 70 per cent reduction in smoke. As a result,
director, skdrdp, told dte-cse at his office in each improved cookstove “is expected to save
Dharmasthala. He also informed that his 3.83 tonnes of woody biomass”, says the project
organisation has been the facilitator of the project document. It also says Greenway would act as a
for the past three years and annually receives 10- coordinating managing entity for the voluntary
20 per cent of the revenue earned through the project activity. According to the database of
carbon credits issued to the project. However, he Gold Standard, the project has been issued 67,737
was reluctant to divulge further details. carbon credits till May 2023.
dte-cse asked Ankit Mathur, founder of Each project is required to be “validated” by a
Greenway Grameen Infra Pvt Ltd, why the stoves registered third party, which in this case is 4K


Vasanta from
Danagalli village
in Karnataka’s
Mysuru district
got a subsidised
improved
cookstove under
Greenway
Grameen’s
carbon-offset
project. She
depends on LPG
and uses the stove
only during
emergencies
Earth Science Pvt Ltd based in Bengaluru. Its information about the project sites. eki
validation report for the project, submitted in representative responded by saying that they
February 2023, says “there is sufficient evidence have non-disclosure agreements with the
to determine the voluntary project activities investors and so they would not be able to provide
fulfilment of all stated criterion”. According to the field information. dte-cse therefore based its visit
document, the end-users (households) have to the field on the information that its project
consented to the transfer of rights to carbon validator tuv sud South Asia Pvt Ltd provided in
credits. This is done at the time of installation; its report issued in October 2021. According to
households are asked to sign a consent form, this report, “we confirm that a reasonable level of
where carbon rights are transferred to Greenway. assurance has been achieved during the process”.
The Yarnaal village residents dte-cse met with dte- cse travelled to seven of the villages
said they remembered signing a paper but were listed in the report in Dhar district of Madhya
not informed about the transfer of carbon rights. Pradesh. In most villages, the cookstoves had
Another cookstove project is being indeed been distributed for free by a company
implemented by eki Energy Services. Registered and in some places by the local panchayat, on
with Verra in 2022, the project is called the basis of submission of the Aadhaar card—
Installation of High-Efficient Cookstoves by universal identity number issued by the Indian
EnKing International (now renamed as eki government. Residents told dte- cse that they
Energy Services). The scope of the project is were asked to sign on registers as receipts of the
across India for the distribution of 15,100 improved cookstoves. They admitted that the
cookstoves which, as per the claims, will reduce stoves were indeed better than the traditional
86,825 tonnes of CO2e annually. In this way, eki mud chulha. However, they did not confirm
P H OTO G R A P H : R O H I N I K R I S H N A M U R T H Y / C S E
claims that it will reduce 0.6 million tonnes of using the improved stoves regularly.
CO2e through this project in seven years. In other Greenway and eki are not the only ones in this
words, each of these super-efficient stoves will cookstove business. Worldwide, over 1,200
reduce 5.75 tonnes of CO2e annually (this is cookstove projects are registered or under various
against the reduction of 2.5 tonnes of CO2e per stages of development with Verra and Gold
year by Greenway’s stove). Verra records that this Standard. Around one-fifth of these projects are
project by eki, with identification number vcs in India. According to “State of Carbon Developer
2473, has been issued 190,034 carbon credits for Ecosystem report 2023” by UK-based market
the first three years. research organisation Abatable, clean household
dte-cse contacted officials with eki for further device projects had a 50 per cent year on year


growth—expansion of developers portfolio—in Sonwani said, “This cookstove is good for boiling
Africa and India. water and making tea.” He has not used the other
In all the cases, the project developer gets cookstove since receiving it earlier this year.
carbon credits issued based on the removal of Households in all other villages that dte-cse
tonnes of CO2e. For instance, eki would get 5.75 visited shared similar information.
carbon credits issued per cookstove per year, Another frequent complaint was that the
while Greenway would get 2.5 carbon credits. improved cookstove required the already over-
Since each carbon credit represents the reduction worked women to cut the fuel wood to
or removal of 1 tonne of CO2e, these credits can be specifications, which they said was arduous. The
sold at an undisclosed price. But the fact is this improved thermal efficiency of stoves depends on
reduction or removal of greenhouse gas emissions the improvement in the quality of fuel supply. In
would depend on the usage of the stove and how fact, in a few cases, households were doing jugaad
carefully the project is being monitored. (local innovation) to speed up combustion in the
stove. They simply added plastic waste into the
OVER-CREDITING stove, mindless of the toxicity of this emission.
GAINS OF REMOVAL Switching to improved cookstoves is
The field visits showed glaring gaps in the project important as it not only improves the health of
design and implementation. In the case of projects women and children in the households but also
of Greenway and eki, the first fundamental flaw reduces greenhouse gas emissions. But the
was the baseline used to estimate the reduction of question is if this estimated reduction actually
greenhouse gas. Both projects are based on the happens. In 2016, the Indian government
assumption that the target population is launched its social welfare scheme Pradhan
primarily dependent on non- Mantri Ujjwala Yojana which
renewable biomass, ignoring the provided 50 million concessional
fact that many possess lpg IMPROVED lpg connections to women of
connections and also use it, if not COOKSTOVE below the poverty line
regularly. They also assume that households. Almost all
people’s behaviour will change by PROJECTS ASSUME households dte-cse visited had
merely providing the improved THAT BY MERELY lpg connections, though it was
cookstoves.
This was far from what dte-
PROVIDING THE apparent that lpg was being used
sparingly because of the cost of
cse saw during its visits to as
APPLIANCE, refilling. Therefore, the actual
many as 13 villages across PEOPLE’S emission reductions would
Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.
Shakarya Kalacharantimath
BEHAVIOUR WILL depend on the usage
of the cookstove and not on the
from Bidi village in Karnataka’s CHANGE AND THEY mere distribution of it.
Belagavi district got the improved WILL USE IT Gold Standard and Verra
cookstove from her daughter
three years ago. She uses it only
REGULARLY provide methodologies—a
standard set of parameters,
once a month and primarily relies criteria and operations—that
on mud chulha and lpg cylinders. “An improved help project developers calculate emission
cookstove, which has one burner, is not convenient reductions or removals. The Greenway project
in a large family setting,” she told dte-cse. In the uses a Clean Development Mechanism (cdm)
village of Phoolsagar in Madhya Pradesh’s methodology, called ams-ii. G, Version 12, and eki
Mandla district, Rahul Sonwani received not one use the Verra vmr0006, and estimates its
but two cookstoves from different distributors. He emission reductions by calculating the amount of
purchased a Greenway stove for `400 ($4.9) from wood saved, the emission factor based on
a salesperson and received the other stove for free displaced fossil fuels and the fraction of non-
from the panchayat. He also possesses an lpg renewable biomass but they miss out accounting
connection. Pointing to the Greenway cookstove, for the usage of the appliance. Greenway


estimates that its project would reduce the use of “The service is bad. No one has come to ask us if
3.83 tonnes we are facing any problems with the cookstove,”
of woody biomass per stove per year because of Shatragun Divate, community leader of Yarnaal
increased thermal efficiency. eki in its emission village in Belagavi, stressed.
reduction calculation document says that each This is also true for cookstoves distributed by
stove would reduce the use of woody biomass by eki in Madhya Pradesh. Om Prakash Kamdar, a
3.7 tonnes per year. This estimate, even if the hardware store owner in Bagdi village of Dhar
thermal efficiency is taken at face value, would district, has given the eki cookstove he received to
depend on the complete shift to the improved his daughter. No one has visited him to check if
biomass stoves by households for each meal each the stove is with him and if it is being used. It is
day in a year. clear that there is much missing
Second, there is the tricky in this tricky accounting of
question of ownership of carbon EMISSION carbon reduction, which is based
credits. Project design documents REDUCTION on the continuous usage of the
available with Gold Standard and
Verra suggest that customers
POTENTIAL OF appliance.
The validation and verification
have transferred their carbon IMPROVED bodies, which are third-party
credits to Greenway and eki,
respectively. These rights allow
COOKSTOVES IS entities, receive money from
project developers to audit the
the companies to sell the carbon REALISED ONLY BY claims. eki project was validated
credits in the voluntary carbon A COMPLETE SHIFT, and verified by tuv sud South
market. eki’s project design
document states that “The end
FOR EACH MEAL Asia Pvt Ltd and was monitored
from 2019 to 2021. According to
users are informed in advance EACH DAY the validator’s report, on-site
that the use of ics [improved inspections were not conducted for
cookstoves] generates carbon finance which in the project, citing lockdown restrictions during the
turn is used to cover the price of ics and for novel coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic. Fourteen
recovering project implementation costs.” Greenway projects in Karnataka were verified and
However, none of the village residents that dte-cse validated by 4K Earth Science Pvt Ltd, which
spoke with knew anything about carbon credits or conducted on-site visits during July 20-22 in 2022.
remember signing any document regarding the 4K Earth Science says it determined the baseline
transfer of carbon rights to Greenway or eki. It is by randomly asking users a few questions such as
important to note that in Greenway’s Karnataka the fuel used previously, whether they still depend
project, the intermediary skdrdp suggested that it on fuel wood and if they experienced any health
was receiving a share of the carbon revenue but issues. They also interviewed Greenway and
there is no detail of this arrangement. skdrdp employees. Both the validation and
verification bodies gave Greenway and eki a clean
VERIFICATION OR NOT chit, citing that there is no additionality issues
The third problem is that there is no evidence of (meaning, the project would not have existed
robust monitoring. Atharva Mahesh Bidikar, the without revenue from carbon credits) and
field officer of Greenway, told dte-cse that he recommending the projects for registration under
conducts surveys once every year to monitor the Gold Standard and Verra. dte-cse reached out to
use of cookstoves and to know about the problems the validation and verification bodies, requesting
people face. Savitri Ramesh Malleshi from Bidi information on their monitoring methodology and
village in Belagavi district, however, informed to understand why their reports contradict the
that Bidikar visited her only once six months ago team’s field reports. 4K Earth Science responded:
when she got her damaged three-year-old “On the outset, we are [a] third-party certifying
cookstove replaced. None of the village residents agency and are bound by confidentiality law. We
that dte-cse spoke with recall interacting with regret we would not be of much help to you. You
Greenway or skdrdp employees about the stove. can contact the client for information.”


Rahul Sonwani from Phoolsagar in
Madhya Pradesh’s Mandla district has
received two improved cookstoves from
different distributors. He uses only one of
the stoves, that too for boiling water
review done by market researcher Abatable in its

paper, “Not all cookstoves are the same”,
published in March 2023 shows that the current
price ranges from $7 to $10 (`577-825) per carbon
credit in cookstove projects. Now, taking the offset
average as 3 tonnes of CO2e per year and the
price average as $8.5 (`701) per credit, each
cookstove would fetch $25.5 (`2,102) per year, and
over its seven-year lifespan would earn the
developer $178.5 or `14,687 on a conservative
basis. This more than covers the capital cost of
the cookstove, even assuming that the village
residents are given this for free. This scam is not
cooked up, but real. In its project document,
Greenway argues that carbon credits are
essential to finance the project as the sales
revenue, which is used to subsidise the cookstoves
given to low-income households, helps the
company recover only a small sum of the total
investment. But Greenway has sold its cookstove
in Karnataka for `2,350 ($29). “People in my
house are annoyed that I paid so much for the
stove. It is a waste of money. We barely use it five
to six times in a year. Also, we do not have enough
DO COMMUNITIES BENEFIT? fuel wood. The little fuel wood we buy is used in
This is the fourth issue. Typically, a “clean our cement chulha to boil water for bathing,”
cookstove” costs anywhere between `160 and Shilpa from Dhangalli village in Mysuru district
`8,000 ($2-$97). eki cookstove costs between told dte-cse. She bought the cookstove a year ago.
`1,500 and `3,000 ($18-$36) and the Greenway In his reply to dte-cse, Ankit Mathur, co-
model is sold at `3,490 ($42). founder, Greenway, distances himself from carbon
Each cookstove is reported to offset 2-4 tonnes markets. “These carbon projects are run and
of CO2e per year (in the case of eki, it is some operated by the likes of eki, mec, C Quest Capital
5.75 tonnes of CO2e) based on its thermal and others. In Karnataka, the majority of
efficiency and the amount of woody biomass it Greenway stoves have been distributed (with/
P H OTO G R A P H : T R I S H A N T D E V / C S E
reduces or replaces. Carbon credits are given without skdrdp) under the programme operated
typically for five to seven years, considering the by Seattle based MicroEnergy Credits (mec).” eki
cookstove’s lifespan. In its five-year lifespan, a has responded with deafening silence. Finally,
cookstove would generate 10-28 carbon credits (in after repeated messages, dte-cse received the
the case of eki, it would be 40). following cryptic email on August 31, 2023 from a
There is no organised marketplace to monitor senior eki representative, which read: “At this
the price of carbon credit for improved cookstoves, point of time the company is in a silent period and
or for that matter any other type of project. A we will not be able to respond.”


E 2
S
CA PROJECT NAME: Araku Valley Livelihood Project (id: VCS 1328;
status: registered with Verra)
PROJECT DEVELOPER: Livelihoods Funds, France
PROJECT TYPE: Afforestation/Reforestation
PLANTING TREES LOCATION: Araku Valley, Andhra Pradesh

PROJECT DETAILS: Afforestation on 6,000 ha of degraded land
FOR CARBON EMISSION REDUCTION: 80,666 tonnes of CO2e per year
I
n 2010, some 6,000 hectares (ha) of plantation ficially started in 2014. As per the project design
spread over 333 villages across the Araku document, its implementer is the well-known and
Valley in the Eastern Ghats of Andhra respected social funding organisation Naandi
Pradesh began earning carbon credits. The tribal Foundation, based in Hyderabad. The project will
communities took up plantation on their private continue till 2030. But the document says that its
land, but the carbon credits are owned by the longevity will actually be more as the project de-
developer of the project, Livelihoods Funds, a sign does not include harvesting or thinning of
Paris-based entity. On its website, Livelihoods the planted trees. As trees get planted, the project
Funds says that it is an impact investment fund will progressively increase its emission reduc-
with initial investment from the food multina- tions—from 2,415 tonnes of CO2e in 2011 to
tional, Danone. 145,134 tonnes of CO2e in 2030. In its 20 years,
Called Araku Valley Livelihood Project, it of- the project document claims that it would reduce
Janni Mithula of
Thotavalasa village in
Andhra Pradesh’s
Araku valley owns
coffee and mango
plantations. For 20
years she has been
planting saplings
provided by Naandi
Foundation. In 2010,
Naandi Foundation
became part of a
carbon-offset project
that has received over
96,000 carbon credits
for reforestation
activities. Mithula
says she is not aware
of carbon credits

1.6 million tonnes of CO2e—with an average of brand, luxury water Evian, was hit by a lawsuit
80,660 tonnes of CO2e each year. The project has on its carbon neutrality claim. The company re-
been registered with Verra and has received sponded saying “We partner with the Livelihoods
96,386 carbon credits till May 2023. Fund, which has planted 130 million trees so far,
In this project, a variety of tree species would sequestering carbon emissions from the atmos-
be planted over 6,000 ha, of which 60 per cent is phere” and so we are carbon neutral.
classified as barren and the rest shrubby and dte-cse travelled to Araku Valley in August
grassland, according to the document. These trees 2023 despite Livelihoods Funds declining its re-
would also provide shade to the coffee plantations, quest for field visits citing difficulties in accessing
which are spread over 3,000 ha. The document the villages because of insurgency and inclement
says that this land is owned by 9,700 farmers—all weather. Naandi Foundation also did not provide
smallholder tribals. field information, but it did respond to queries af-
According to the project document, these com- ter the visit. There are two major questions about
munities have “agreed” that they this project: one, whether commu-
will have the right to the fruits
and other produce of the horticul-
THE AGREEMENT nities are benefitting from carbon
credits and whether the emission
ture trees, but not to the carbon UNDER WHICH reduction by the project is “addi-
credits generated by the project. ARAKU’S TRIBAL tional” and would not have oc-
The document says, “farmers and
the communities have agreed
FARMERS HAVE curred without revenue from car-
bon credits.
that the property rights on the GIVEN UP THEIR
carbon credits generated by this CARBON RIGHTS TO DO COMMUNITIES
restoration are exclusively allo-
cated to the developer of the Pro- THE DEVELOPER IS BENEFIT?
It was clear from the visit that
ject.” Furthermore, “under this LEGALLY BINDING the real benefit to the communi-
agreement, the beneficiary com-
munity is committed not to assert
FOR 20 YEARS, AS ties comes from coffee planta-
tions. In villages like Doravalasa,
any property rights over the car- PER THE PROJECT Thotavalasa, Kondavalsa and
bon credits generated and/or to VALIDATOR’S Garudaguda, tribal families had
be generated by the Project.” This
agreement is a legally binding
REPORT IN 2014 shifted from millets to coffee—
trees were planted to shade the
commitment to manage and pro- plantations. Naandi Foundation
tect the credited carbon stocks over the length of provides training on organic coffee plantations
the crediting period of 20 years. and the tribals dte-cse spoke with acknowledged
scs Global Services, a verification agency that this shift had improved their lives. But they
based in the US, says in its 2014 validation report knew nothing of carbon credits. G Apaliamma of
that although “the ownership is with the farmers, Doravalasa has set up a coffee plantation on her
each farmer has signed an agreement with Naan- 0.8 ha farmland. She sells part of her harvest
di Foundation, acting on behalf of Danone, where- through Naandi and the rest through middlemen.
by they transferred the right of use on the carbon She told dte-cse that her husband had signed a
credits generated by the project.” Furthermore, document but they do not know what it said. Tha-
“although the agreements were made in the name mala Vimala, another resident of Doravalasa who
of Danone, the audit team confirmed that Danone owns 4.8 ha and grows coffee, also narrates a
transferred any right on the project to Livelihoods similar story.
Fund, a fund participated by Danone”. It confirms On being questioned about the revenue-shar-
that “Naandi Foundation does not have any ing model, Rohini Mukherjee, head of global part-
right of use, since it is planting and implement- nerships and strategy at the Naandi Foundation,
ing, it may claim rights linked to its role as a replied “that tribals have become “lakhpatis” (mil-
project implementer.” lionaires), thanks to the Livelihoods project”.
Interestingly, in 2022, a popular Danone However, dte-cse found no evidence to back that


claim. The tribal farmers had certainly benefitted ing, banned only in 2019, had also added to land deg-
from growing and selling coffee. Quality of the coffee radation. In the 1990s, itda, through the state govern-
has also improved and the brand Araku is now ment of Andhra Pradesh, launched a massive planta-
well known. But they have not benefitted from the tion drive in Araku Valley. “Tens of thousands of sil-
carbon credits. ver oak saplings were distributed, making the moun-
It leaves one wondering whether benefit sharing in tains green in the 1990s. The plants also provided
carbon credits can only be claimed by providing free shade for coffee saplings. In this way, deforested areas
saplings and training, given that farmers contribute were converted into coffee plantations,” V Abhishek,
the land and labour towards growing and maintain- project officer of itda, told dte-cse. Naandi Foundation
ing the plantations that sequester carbon. It is also entered the region only in the 2000s.
the land of the tribals, where the “ownership” of the Mukherjee does not agree that the project violates
trees has been transferred to a private entity. additionality. “Naandi’s livelihoods-supported carbon
In Naandi Foundation’s model, farmers pay an an- sequestration programme began in 2010 and includes
nual membership fee of `100 ($1.2) to the cooperative strictly only those fruit and forest trees that were
it has set up, the Small and Mar- planted at the start of this pro-
ginal Tribal Farmers Mutually gramme, and grown and nur-
Aided Cooperative Society (macs). LIVELIHOODS FUNDS tured by farmers from that
“By becoming a member [of macs],
farmers start receiving support
WHICH CARRIES OUT time,” she says.
The project calculates its
with saplings, training, organic AFFORESTATION annual emission reductions by
bio-inputs, farm gate collection of ACTIVITIES IN following a cdm methodology
harvested cherries and buy back
at prices higher than any other
ARAKU VALLEY “aracm0003: Afforestation and
reforestation of lands except
buyers’ offer,” Mukherjee says. EXPECTS TO GET wetlands (Version 2.0)”. The
But dte-cse during its field visit 1.6 MILLION CARBON 2014 validation report by scs
has found that some farmers
were not aware that a member-
CREDITS, WHICH IS Global Services shows that the
shrub cover prior to the project
ship fee was being charged. WORTH $12.8 was non-woody weed with
Khroaa Ruthama, a tribal from MILLION BY scarce biomass. It has been cal-
Thotavalasa village, said that she
had never heard about a sub-
CONSERVATIVE culated that the annual emis-
sion reduction from the project
scription fee. Kilo Buddu from ESTIMATES is 38,551 tonnes of CO2e after
Garudaguda village knew that considering the project’s risk
money was being charged but did not know the exact rating, which was found to be 10 per cent due to haz-
amount. This is because macs deducts the member- ards like fire and cyclones. In October 2014, a strong
ship fee every year while buying the produce. tropical cyclone Hudhud caused extensive damage to
the planted trees. Naandi Foundation clarified that a
ADDITIONALITY CONCERNS replantation activity was undertaken in 2015. The
Then, there is the additionality issue, which suggests validation document points out that no study was
that the project would not have existed without rev- done to assess and quantify the damage.
enue from carbon credits. Several residents of Dorava- The revenue model of the project is not obvious.
lasa and other villages informed dte-cse that several Livelihoods Funds finances Naandi Foundation to
other private agencies also provide them saplings of provide technical support and saplings to farmers.
coffee and other trees for free. The Integrated Tribal The financial details on its website shows that Naandi
Development Agency (itda), a government agency, has Foundation has received `21.5 crore between 2016
been providing free saplings and training to the tribal and 2022 from Livelihoods Funds. The real money
farmers since 1985. would be in the sale of the carbon credits, which are
The region has seen some deforestation in the past owned by Livelihoods Funds. As per the project docu-
due to podu (shifting cultivation), where forest patches ment, Livelihoods Funds expects to get 1.6 million
are cleared for agriculture by burning. Bauxite min- carbon credits. According to Abatable, forestry pro-


37Himalaya biodiversity advertorial_FINAL.indd 37 25/09/23 3:57 PM

jects earn between $8 and $30 (`660-2,474) per hoods Funds, include Danone, Schneider Electric,
credit, with the average being $14 (`1,154). At the Crédit Agricole SA, Michelin, Hermès, sap,
conservative rate of $8, the value of held credits Groupe Caisse des Dépôts, La Poste, Firmenich,
would amount to $12.8 million (`106 crore), which Voyageurs du Monde. dte-cse found on the Verra
as explained above is not being distributed among registry that in 2019 and 2020, Michelin Group
the growers of trees. retired credits from this project to offset the emis-
This project, however, is not selling credits in sions from travel of its employees. The public data
the open market. As per information gathered by on retirement is sketchy. Livelihoods Funds also
dte-cse from various sources, the carbon credits does not have information on how much credits it
are issued to private companies, which have in- has issued to its investors. The carbon credits
vested in the fund. These investor companies, game, once again, is about non-transparency and
whose names are listed on the website of Liveli- all in the name of climate action and poor people.
Lalitha of
Kondavalasa
village in Araku
Valley of Andhra
Pradesh says the
government’s
Integrated Tribal
Development
Agency has been
providing free
saplings of coffee
and horticulture
crops to the tribal
farmers of the
region much before
Naandi Foundation
started its
plantation
programme in
Araku. Naandi
Foundation’s
afforestation
activities are part
of a carbon-offset
project of Paris-
based Livelihoods
Funds


E 3
S
CA
PROJECT NAME: Core Carbon PROJECT NAME: Sustainable rice
Sustainable Rice Productions productions for marginal farmers in
(id: VCS 3238; status: under Madhya Pradesh (id: VCS 3156; status:
consideration with Verra) under consideration with Verra)
PROJECT DEVELOPER: Core PROJECT DEVELOPER: Value
CarbonX Solutions Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad Network Ventures Advisory Services,
PROJECT TYPE: Agriculture Bengaluru
LOCATION: Telangana PROJECT TYPE: Agriculture
PROJECT DETAILS: Methane LOCATION: Madhya Pradesh

emission reduction by promoting PROJECT DETAILS: Implement
MANAGING
alternate wetting and drying method alternate wetting and drying method in
across 550,000 ha fields of smallholder farmers
METHANE EMISSION REDUCTION: 52,920

tonnes of CO2e per year
EMISSION REDUCTION: 189,404
tones of CO2e per year
V
enkat Reddy, a farmer from Nemmany guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Cli-
village in Telangana’s Nalgonda district mate Change (ipcc), it is estimated that if continu-
expects to receive `6,400 ($78) annually ously flooded rice fields were drained at least once
for changing the way he cultivates rice. A year during the growing season, global methane emis-
and a half ago, Core CarbonX Solutions Pvt Ltd, sions would reduce by 4.1 million tonnes per year,
a Hyderabad-based carbon trading, environmen- which is 2.5 per cent of the global methane emis-
tal consulting and sustainability advisory firm, sions from agriculture in 2021.
had introduced him to a new technique called The idea is to allow the soil to dry out until
alternate wetting and drying, in which paddy fissures appear before re-flooding it. This creates
fields are alternately flooded and dried. In fact, alternate wet and dry cycles for the rice plants.
many other farmers in Telangana also expect to “We keep the fields fully flooded only seven days
be rewarded from next year for collaborating before and after flowering,” says Niruj Mohanty,
with the company, which has applied for regis- managing director and chief executive officer of
tration with Verra—identification number (ID) Core CarbonX, who accompanied dte-cse to meet
vcs 3238—and hopes to enter voluntary carbon the farmers of Nalgonda.
market in 2024. Core CarbonX has partnered with Swamy
The conventional method of Vivekananda Rural Development
paddy cultivation accounts for Society (svnrds), a local non-prof-
roughly 2 per cent of the global it that provides educational, so-
greenhouse gas emissions from IN INDIA, 13 cial development and humanitar-
anthropogenic sources. Typically, COMPANIES HAVE ian services to the rural popula-
paddy is continuously flooded dur- tion, to recruit farmers in the
ing cultivation to check weed ALREADY APPLIED district. Core CarbonX also pro-
growth. This practice, however, FOR REGISTRATION vides training to farmers and
leads to proliferation of bacteria FOR ALTERNATE supplies field water tubes to
that generate methane, a power- them. Measuring 30 cm in length

ful greenhouse gas. According to a WETTING AND and 15 cm in diameter, the field
review paper by the International DRYING METHOD OF water tube is essentially a plastic
Rice Research Institute, the Phil-
ippines, experiments in South
PADDY FARMING, pipe with drilled holes, which is
sunk into the rice field so that 10
Asia have shown that alternate EVEN IF IT IS cm of it protrudes above the soil.
wetting and drying method helps RELATIVELY NEW When the water level drops to
reduce methane emissions by an
average of 43 per cent and water
IN THE VOLUNTARY about 15 cm below the surface of
the soil, farmers can re-flood the
use by 30 per cent. Using the 2006 CARBON MARKET field to a depth of about 5 cm. As


of August 11, 2023, when dte-cse visited Nalgon- trained to conduct the practices, monitor water
da, Core CarbonX claimed that 150,000 ha in Tel- levels, record observations in monitoring diaries,
angana had been brought under this new method and ensure adherence to the overall practice.
of cultivation, and that farmers in at least 17 dis- They would be supervised by appointed individu-
tricts, where rice is grown in both rabi and kha- als responsible for overseeing operations.
rif, were adopting the technique. Core CarbonX Alternate wetting and drying method is rela-
has appointed supervisors in each village to con- tively new in the Indian voluntary carbon market.
ducted surveys and monitor the project. In India, 13 companies have already applied for
A similar project is also been readied for roll registration for such projects with Gold Standard
out in Madhya Pradesh. Called Sustainable Rice and Verra. They are located in three states: Tel-
Cultivation for Marginal Farmers in Madhya angana, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Pradesh, the project is listed with Verra (ID- Projects to reduce methane emissions from
vcs3156) and hopes to get registered soon. Its pro- paddy fields currently use a cdm methodology
ject proponent Value Network Ventures Advisory called ams-iii-au-Methane emission reduction by
Services (vnv) is based out of Bengaluru and the adjusted water management practices in rice cul-
project is being implemented by Shriram Educa- tivation, to estimate emission reduction. The
tion and Welfare Society (sews) based in Seoni, methodology focuses on reducing anaerobic de-
Madhya Pradesh. Rameshwar Pardhi, who runs composition of organic matter in rice cropping.
sews, told dte-cse that under this project they Baseline emissions of methane gas are measured
would form groups of farmers who would collec- in reference fields using “closed chamber method”.
tively own 60-70 ha. The farmers would be This results in a emission factor that is measured
Farmers in
Thummalagudam
village in
Nalgonda district
of Telangana
follow alternate
wetting and
drying method to
curb emissions of
methane, a
greenhouse gas,
from paddy
farming. Project
developer Core
CarbonX plans to
join the voluntary

carbon market to
claim carbon
credits against
the methane
reduction

RESIDENTIAL TRAINING
WHO CAN APPLY
PLANNING AND DESIGNING • Municipal engineers and

engineers working in government
FOR CO-TREATMENT OF implementation agencies

• Consultants and advisors
FAECAL SLUDGE/SEPTAGE AT
working with government
• PSU/TSU officials supporting
states/cities implementing FSSM
SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANTS TRAINING METHODOLOGY

DATE: OCTOBER 18-20, 2023 The training methodology will
follow a mixed approach involving
VENUE: ANIL AGARWAL ENVIRONMENT TRAINING INSTITUTE (AAETI), lectures, group exercises,
NIMLI, ALWAR, RAJASTHAN interactive discussions, video
documentaries, exposure visits etc.
LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION: ENGLISH
Indian cities face a serious problem of inadequate collection and treatment of sewage COURSE FEES
and faecal sludge -- only about a third of urban India is served by networked services. • Government officials:
Many large cities either have a sewerage system with a sewage treatment plant (STP), Registration fee is waived for
or plan to build one in the near future. But connecting every part of a city with a sewer
Central and state government
network is a resource-intensive and impossible process – cities, therefore, will continue
to have pockets that will depend on on-site sanitation systems. The septage/faecal sludge officials*
collected from these onsite systems requires treatment either at a stand-alone faecal • Indian participants:
sludge treatment plant (FSTP) or at an STP. ` 23,000 (for double
In India, sewage treatment plants are grossly underutilised. As per the Central occupancy accommodation);
Pollution Control Board’s 2021 inventory of STPs in India, 1,469 STPs are operational in ` 30,000 (for single
the country, with a treatment capacity of 31,841 million litre per day (MLD): these plants occupancy accommodation)
are treating only 20,235 MLD. In such a scenario, co-treatment of faecal sludge and
septage in STPs is a feasible and promising solution to the problem of urban sewage/
SPECIAL OFFERS
septage management.
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is offering a tailor-made three-day • 20% off for group participation
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Sludge at Sewage Treatment Plants’. The training would aim to help the participants: organization
• understand the quantitative and qualitative data/information required for assessing the • 15% off for full-time working
technical viability of co-treating faecal sludge at STPs representatives from
• understand the technological challenges for co-treatment of faecal sludge/septage at registered NGOs
different types of sewage treatment technologies *Cost of travel to Delhi and back for
• understand the operation and maintenance requirements along with financial nominated officials to be borne by the
implications for co-treatment nominating authority.
TO REGISTER VISIT:
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OR Scan this QR code
COURSE COORDINATOR
Ravi Kumar
Deputy Programme Manager,
Water Programme, CSE
Mobile: +91-9738287101,
Email: ravi.kumar@cseindia.org
41AD-FSTP.indd 41 26/09/23 9:36 AM

in kilogram methane per hectare per season. To ter has agreed to transfer the rights to carbon
demonstrate a decrease in emissions, project prac- credits to the companies. These agreements out-
tices are carried out in reference fields and similar line the farmers’ relinquishment of their carbon
measurements are performed. rights, their commitment to adhering to specified
According to Mohanty of Core CarbonX, meas- methods and their willingness to seek advice for
uring methane from the field is tedious and ex- sustainable farming practices.
pensive. Instead, he uses a formula present in The farmers dte- cse spoke with were una-
Verra’s methodology that allows him to calculate ware of carbon credits but said that they have
emission reductions by multiplying the adjusted been assured of incentives for following the al-
daily emission factor (coefficient that describes the ternate wetting and drying method. Mohanty
rate at which a given activity releases greenhouse told dte- cse that his company would give the
gases into the atmosphere) with the area of project farmers `800 per acre (`1,920 or $23 per ha) per
fields in a year, the cultivation period of rice in a annum. “Almost 25 per cent of revenue from the
year and global warming potential of methane. sale of carbon credits would be used by the com-
The formula suggests that alternate wetting and pany and their partner non-profits. Farmers
drying method could result in 52,920 tonnes of would get 35-45 per cent share and 30 per cent
CO2e reduction per year. The project is expected would go to their investors, Carbon Streaming
to be active for seven years, resulting in emission and Vida [Canada-based companies that invests
reductions of 370,440 tonnes of CO2e. Prithvi Ram in carbon credit projects],” he explained. The
from Dr Reddy’s Foundation, sister organisation of company expects the value of one carbon credit
Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company Dr to be $8 (`660). Each hectare where paddy is
Reddy’s Laboratories, also plans to claim carbon grown using alternate wetting and drying gen-
credits for alternate wetting and drying projects erates 5-8 carbon credits or 6.5 credits per ha on
in Telangana in the future. He says that measur- average. At this rate, the company would fetch a
ing methane emissions can help check whether carbon revenue of `4,313 ($52), of which it plans
theoretical estimates match ground measure- to share `1,920 per ha or roughly 45 per cent
ments. “It is expensive but doable. The implemen- with the farmers. However, some farmers said
tation might not be the same everywhere. When that the incentive may not be sufficient. “Be-
you scale up or extrapolate the data, the measure- cause of alternate wetting and drying method,
ments may look different. So it is important to val- we now use more herbicides to control weeds and
idate them,” Ram says. our input costs go up,” said A Ram Reddy from
Nemmany village.
PLANNED TO SHARE As for the Madhya Pradesh project, Pardhi
The methodology also says that the shift in prac- shared that participating group (each group is ex-
tice should not lead to decreased yields. Dhashara- pected to have 60-65 farmers) would receive a fi-
ta Reddy, a farmer from Urumadla village in Chi- nancial support of `50,000 ($606) annually—
tyala mandal of Nalgonda, told dte-cse that he roughly `800 ($9.7) per farmer per year—to cover
benefitted from the alternate wetting operational expenses. He estimates that the pro-
and drying method. “Last rabi, my yield was ject cost per group will be roughly `1 lakh ($1,213)
2.9-3 tonnes per acre (roughly 1.2 tonnes per ha). per annum, which includes the cost of registering
This is an increase of 0.4-0.5 tonnes,” he said. the project and annual monitoring. This will be
Muthian Shetty from Wattimarthy village in secured through the sale of carbon credits.
Chityala mandal, who has been following the The questions that remain in this important
technique for over a year now, however, informed mitigation effort are if the incentives that will
no changes in the yield. dte-cse was not able to flow to the farmer are sufficient to drive the
ascertain if the farmers’ expenditure had in- change and if the methodology for estimating
creased in terms of labour and farm inputs be- emission reduction is robust. The fact is this
cause of the shift in method. change in cultivation system of a subsistence crop
Both Core CarbonX and vnv have signed will need to be carefully managed so that it ben-
agreements with the farmers stating that the lat- efits both the farmer and the planet.


E 4
S
PROJECT NAME: Household PROJECT NAME: Household
biogas Carbon Offset Project for biogas plants installed in rural areas
CA
Clean, Convenient and Efficient of Madhya Pradesh (ID: GS 7510,
Cooking (ID: VCS 2754, status: status: registered with Gold Standard)
registered with Verra) PROJECT DEVELOPER: Value
PROJECT DEVELOPER: Network Ventures Advisory Services.
INSEDA Engineers and Bengaluru
Consultants Pvt Ltd, Delhi PROJECT TYPE: Household and
PROJECT TYPE: Household communities
and communities LOCATION: Madhya Pradesh
LOCATION: Madhya Pradesh PROJECT DETAILS:
PROJECT DETAILS: Set up Commissioned 14,301 biogas plants
BIOGAS
8,519 biogas plants across in Mandla, Seoni, Balaghat and
Madhya Pradesh Chhindwara districts
BONANZA EMISSION REDUCTION:

25,892 tonnes CO2e per year
EMISSION REDUCTION:
51,235 tonnes CO2e per year
U
nkalal Ji Patidar has a 4 cubic metre bi- has never caused any problems and is the only
ogas plant in his backyard in the Alniya source of cooking fuel in his house.
village of Ratlam district in Madhya dte-cse visited these biogas plants in Alniya
Pradesh. Biogas plant, also known as biogas di- village because they are part of the project of inse-
gester, is a system that converts organic waste da Engineers and Consultants Pvt Ltd, Delhi-
into methane and organic fertiliser through an- based non-profit, which has been issued carbon
aerobic digestion. Unkalal Ji’s house has had the credit under Verra. The project, called “Household
plant for about 30 years, but the technology kept biogas Carbon Offset Project for Clean, Conveni-
changing. Previously, it was a simple brick struc- ent and Efficient Cooking” (identification number
ture with lesser capacity. Now the one built with vcs 2754), has been issued 35,820 credits till date
the help of New Life Centre, a Ratlam-based non- for installation of 8,519 biogas plants across Mad-
profit, is an rcc (reinforced cement concrete) di- hya Pradesh. It has a seven-year crediting period
gester. His family has used lpg in the past, but till 2027.
stopped using it because of high refill costs. The The project seems to run well on the ground
construction of the rcc biogas plant cost him with biogas plants actually being used, yet con-
`35,000-40,000 ($424-485), which was initially cerns abound. First, the biogas plants have been
borne by the household. But New Life Centre set up using the Madhya Pradesh government’s
helped him avail a 40 per cent subsidy scheme. The households
subsidy on the expenditure under dte- cse visited have all received
the state government’s Biogas GLOBALLY, OVER the subsidy and paid the balance
Vikas Yojana, which is being
implemented by the Madhya
200 HOUSEHOLD money. This raises questions
about the additionality of the
Pradesh State Agro Industries BIOGAS PROJECTS project, as the role of carbon
Corporation Ltd (MP Agro). dte- ARE REGISTERED credit in running the project
cse verified this claim by checking
the list of beneficiaries on the MP
WITH VERRA AND cannot be substantiated. Second,
while the ownership of carbon
Agro website. GOLD STANDARD. credits has been claimed by inse-
Unkalal Ji’s neighbour Lal- OVER 50 PROJECTS da, possibly through an agree-
chand Ji Patidar also got a biogas
plant built in 2020. It cost him
ARE FROM INDIA ment between the company and
the implementing agency New
around `29,000 ($352) and New THAT HAVE Life Centre, and the member or-
Life Centre helped him obtain a COLLECTIVELY ganisation has an agreement
subsidy of `14,000 ($170) from
MP Agro. Lalchand Ji was satis-
GENERATED 4 with the beneficiaries, the latter
were not aware of carbon credits,
fied with the plant, which he said MILLION CREDITS nor did they recall signing any


A BIOGAS PLANT WOULD

TYPICALLY EARN $16-56
FROM CARBON CREDITS IN
A YEAR. CAPITAL COST OF
SETTING UP SUCH A PLANT
IS $364. IN THIS WAY, THE
BUYER OF CARBON
CREDITS IS SHORT-
CHANGING FARMERS OF
DEVELOPING WORLD
document relinquishing their carbon credit
rights. Third, if the project is receiving carbon
credits, it remains unclear how the resulting
revenue is being utilised.
Another concern around the project is moni-
toring. Biogas systems need to be fed with a
large amount of biomass daily and often need
maintenance to keep them running. If such
plants are being counted for emission reduc-
tions, their usage needs to be monitored.
Globally, over 200 household biogas projects
are registered with Verra and Gold Standard,
mostly from India and China. Of these, more
than 50 projects are from India, which have col-
lectively generated over 4 million carbon credits.
One such biogas project registered with Gold delays, so his project does not rely on subsidies.
Standard is “Household Biogas Plants Installed Instead, the funding comes from carbon credits.
in Rural Areas of Madhya Pradesh” (ID: On the question of monitoring, Pardhi claimed
GS7510). It has been developed by a Bengaluru- that they have affiliated biogas service centres
based company vnv Advisory, which is working in all the towns around which the project is clus-
along with Seoni-based non-profit sews (Shriram tered. He showed a servicing card which men-
Education and Welfare Society) for implementa- tions free biogas repair services, saying that
tion of the project. In 2018, as many as 14,301 they keep track of biogas plants that they install
biogas plants were commissioned in Mandla, through their teams.
Seoni, Balaghat and Chhindwara districts un- Even with that setup, maintaining over
der the project, which claims over 51,235 tonnes 14,000 biogas plants is challenging. In a small
P H OTO G R A P H : T R I S H A N T D E V / C S E
of emission reduction per year. Till date, the pro- village called Bhawal, 70 km from Jabalpur,
ject has been issued 143,966 credits. Naresh Malgam got a biogas plant built for
Rameshwar Pardhi, who runs sews, main- free in his backyard in 2018. He used it ini-
tains biogas service centres in Seoni and Bala- tially, but the system was no longer in use. The
ghat. He claimed to have been building biogas family has an lpg connection received under
plants in the region for almost three decades the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana but uses
now. He mentioned that the government’s sub- the mud chulha, which he said is more afford-
sidy system is functionally weak with inordinate able. Another resident in his village Brijesh


Lalchand Ji
Patidar from
Alniya village in
Madhya
Pradesh’s Ratlam
district has set up
a biogas plant
using subsidy
from the state
government. The
plant is part of a
carbon-offset
project
Yadav had a similar story to narrate. “About 40 tre biogas plant reduces greenhouse gas emis-
kg of cow dung is required to feed a digester per sions by 8 tonnes per year. This is because when
day. There is no way a household can get that households move to biogas they switch from using
much cow dung each day,” said Suvedas Bairagi, wood based fuels or even fossil fuel like lpg. inse-
another resident of the village. Elsewhere, such da’s project uses a cdm methodology, ams-ie--
as in Seoni, people were found to be using biogas Switch from non-renewable biomass for thermal
as the sole source of cooking fuel. Thus, even if applications by the user, to estimate this emission
biogas plants are funded through carbon cred- reduction. Project developers dte-cse spoke with
its, questions arise regarding subsidy implica- estimate that the price is $2-7 (`155-577) per
tions and manual project monitoring. This, in credit. In other words, a 4 cubic metre plant
turn, raises questions about the projects’ addi- would earn $16-56 per year (`1,319-4,617).
tionality and the actual emission reduction ben- This is clearly a pittance, as compared to the
efits they provide. capital cost of building the plant (`30,000 or $364)
Carbon credit-based project developers install and then its management and maintenance. In
biogas plants in households that traditionally use this way, the buyer of the carbon credit is short-
wood or other forms of non-renewable biomass. As changing the farmers of the developing world.
a renewable biomass, cow dung is anaerobically This can be called a fundamental flaw in the
digested to produce biogas that is utilised in cook- “market” as it underestimates the real cost of re-
ing. According to inseda’s estimates, a 4 cubic me- ducing emissions.


E 5
S
CA
Registered renewable energy (RE) projects in India
675 projects
Total RE credits issued
268 million credits
Emission reduction
268 tonnes of CO2e
CURIOUS CASE Number of retired credits
OF RENEWABLES 148 million

Source: Berkley Carbon Trading Project
T
he biggest chunk of carbon credits are the carbon credit received. In a 2021 paper by
awarded for renewable energy projects, the Centre for Climate Change Economics and
which include wind, solar, biomass and Policy and the Grantham Research Institute on
hydropower projects. Good, you would say, as In- Climate Change and the Environment, both in
dia has plans to greatly augment its clean energy the UK, the authors estimated that of the 472
portfolio and in this way, offsets can be used to wind farm projects in India registered under
make the transition. Sadly, this does not add up. cdm, 52 per cent of the “approved offsets” were
About 675 projects are registered under Verra allocated to projects that would very likely have
and Gold Standard for 268 million carbon cred- been built anyway. Selling these non-additional
its, of which 148 million have been retired (or offsets to emitters has allowed them to increase
claimed against offsets)—this is over 90 per cent carbon emissions without any real benefit in
of the carbon credits issued. There are no new terms of emission reductions in the real world.
projects in this sector, as since 2020, both Verra However, this may not be the real test of the
and Gold Standard have stopped accepting new renewable energy’s viability in the carbon credit
grid-connected renewable energy projects, except
from the least developed countries. The reason
cited is that “these projects are now cost-competi-
tive with fossil-fired power generation facilities Diminishing charm
and have become common practice”. Grid-connected renewable energy projects no
Till then, the concept behind awarding carbon longer preferred for carbon credits
credits to renewable energy projects was straight-
Biomass Hydropower RE Bundled
forward: these projects generate energy without
Solar - Centralized Solar - Distributed
emitting greenhouse gases that would have been
No of projects that received credits for the first time
Solar Lighting Solar Water Heaters Wind

released had fossil fuels been used for electricity
generation. The difference in emissions between 70
the project’s actual performance and a hypotheti-
cal scenario where fossil fuels were used was cal- 60
culated, and based on that carbon credits were 50
issued. Renewable energy projects include, wind,
40
solar, biomass and hydropower projects.
30
ADDITIONALITY IS NOT AN 20
ISSUE BUT PRICE IS
It is widely accepted that renewable projects 10
would not pass the test of additionality—the rea- 0
son is that government and private entrepre- 2001 2021
neurs would invest in these projects regardless of


market. The fact is that the world needs to aug- India-based wind energy carbon credits is ap-
ment clean energy and needs finance to be able proximately $1.20 (`99) per credit, a price that
to do this. In countries of the South, the high cost has significantly decreased over the past decade.
of finance restricts the investment in grid-based Carbon credits must be based on the cost of the
renewable energy projects, which would help project and not on the whims of the non-existent
countries make the transition to clean fuel. market. We have analysed the proportion of the
Therefore, it would help if the carbon credit carbon credit in the cost of the key registered re-
scheme pays for the cost of the project. newable energy projects. It is clear that the volun-
Renewable energy carbon projects represent tary carbon market only takes care of a fraction of
some of the cheapest carbon credits available in the costs of these projects—between
the market. For instance, the average price of 3 and 4 per cent in the 10-year crediting period.
Cost undermined
Carbon credits issued to renewable energy are a fraction of the project cost, with exception of Jaiprakash Hydro
Project Capacity *Total cost **Emission Potential money from Carbon
(MW) (R crore) reduction emission reduction finance as
estimated per in 1st crediting period % of total
year (tCO2eq) (`cr) cost
Hydropower project by
300 1,650 1,052,463 620.95 37.6
Jaiprakash Hydro Power Ltd
Renewable solar power
project by ReNew Solar 927 6,386.2 1,767,281 220.91 3.6
Power Pvt Ltd
Bundled solar photovoltaic
project by ACME Solar 1207 6,403 2,078,589 259.82 4.0
Holdings Pvt Ltd
Solar Energy Projects by
2250 13,820 4,354,646 544.33 3.9
SB Energy Pvt Ltd1
Wind Based Power
Generation by Mytrah 233 1,343 479,448 59.93 4.4
Energy (India) Ltd
Energising India solar
energy projects by Azure 480 2,721 852,639 106.58 3.9
Power India Pvt Ltd
250 MW Wind Power
Project by Mytrah Energy 250 1,890 598,039 74.75 3.9
(India) Ltd
Solar power project in
Rajasthan by Azure Power 600 2,150 1,138,724 71.17 3.3
India Pvt Ltd
Bundled Wind Power
Project by Mytrah Energy 493.5 3,561 921,296 115.16 3.2
(India) Ltd
Ghani Solar Renewable
Power Project by Greenko 500 3,725 996,010 124.5 3.3
Group2
* Total cost is specified by the project developer in the project document; ** Emission reduction per year are estimated by project developers
and mentioned in the project document; the price per tonne of emission reduction is assumed $1.5 for solar and wind power projects, and
$3.5 for hydropower projects; 1. Project developer Adani Renewable Energy Devco Pvt Ltd; 2. Project developer Zuvan Energy Pvt Ltd

OF THE 472 WIND FARM

Renewable option PROJECTS IN INDIA
In India, renewable energy (RE) projects REGISTERED UNDER
account for 90% of carbon credits issued CDM, 52 PER CENT OF
Credits retired Credits remaining (in million)
THE “APPROVED
891 OFFSETS” WERE
Total RE ALLOCATED TO
projects
PROJECTS THAT WOULD
675 VERY LIKELY HAVE BEEN
120 268 148
Registered Total credits BUILT ANYWAY
projects issued
573 This is based on the current price of credits for

renewable projects at $1.5 (`124) and the emission
Projects with
issued credits reduction potential as cited in the project docu-
ment. Even assuming the highest cost of carbon
Source: Ivy S. So, Barbara K. Haya, Micah Elias. (2023, May).
Voluntary Registry Offsets Database v8, Berkeley Carbon Trading
credit, it would still be less than 10 per cent. The
Project, University of California, Berkeley. (May 2023) only outlier is the 300 MW hydroelectric project by
Jaiprakash Hydro in Himachal Pradesh. In this
case, the credits per megawatt as estimated by the
project developer is much higher than what the
Wind power projects receive maximum carbon solar and wind projects usually command; the pro-
credits, followed by hydroelectric projects and ject period for which Jaiprakash Hydro would se-
centralised solar projects cure credits is also longer at 20 years. With this
and a higher carbon credit price of $3.5 (`289), it
Type No. of Credits
Projects Issued adds up to roughly 38 per cent of the capital cost
(see ‘Cost undermined’, p47)
Biomass 110 6,838,662
Hydropower 62 69,229,115
OFFSETS IN WHOSE ACCOUNT
RE Bundled 24 4,129,816 Renewable energy carbon credit projects reveal
Solar - Centralised 147 67,652,639 the big issue that needs to be addressed in car-
Solar - Distributed 54 5,792,296 bon credits market. In whose account book should
the emission reduction from these projects be
Solar Lighting 6 350,126
kept? Should India count renewable capacity ad-
Solar Water Heaters 14 578,255
dition and emission reduction towards its own
Wind 474 113,670,832 Nationally Determined Contribution (ndc) targets
Grand Total 891 268,241,741 under the Paris Agreement? All countries, in-
cluding India, have taken on targets for reduction
of emissions under the Agreement. As per its ndc,
India has announced that non-fossil fuel would
constitute 50 per cent of the total installed power
capacity by 2030. India would count all projects
that are non-fossil fuel, including hydroelectric-
ity, wind and solar. This either poses a risk of
double counting or short-changes the govern-
ment’s clean energy efforts by attributing carbon
rights to foreign entities.

49Godrej downtoearthmag-godrej-19.75x27.5cmfinal.indd 49 26/09/23 9:45 AM

SAVE THE
CARBON
BUBBLE Governments world over continue to
issue regulations to rein in the voluntary
carbon market, hold it accountable for
its acts and ensure sharing of the
proceeds with communities. But these
steps may not work without international
rules to regulate the market.
In India, the voluntary market must be
regulated and made to contribute to the
country’s climate goals
50-58Cover story-carbon market_Section 4-5_redesigned.indd 50 26/09/23 5:14 PM

n If not n The carbon n Countries have sold off
properly market should all cheap options of
evaluated, be a real emission reductions. They
projects under market, not a would now be in the
the carbon secret pact balance sheet of foreign
market can between a entities and and will not be
lead to more buyer and able to make investments
GHG emissions seller in hard-to-abate options

T
HE FREE run of the voluntary carbon On June 28, 2023, the Union power ministry
market may just be over. Governments issued a notification on its Carbon Credit Trad-
across the world are increasingly ing Scheme. Under this, the government would
concerned about the nature of this unregulated constitute a National Steering Committee for the
market. In May this year, the Zimbabwe Indian carbon market. The committee would be
government declared all voluntary carbon credit tasked with the governance of the Indian carbon
schemes “null and void”, causing huge market and direct oversight of its functioning.
consternation to the developers of the projects. It The Bureau of Energy Efficiency, an agency un-
said that the government would take 50 per cent der the power ministry would be the designated
of the revenue from the projects and 20 per cent administrator of the Indian carbon market. It
would go to communities. This was clearly too will also issue carbon credits based on the recom-
much for the market to bear and finally in August mendations provided by the committee. The Grid
2023, the government of Zimbabwe announced Controller of India Limited shall act as the regis-
that the project developers could keep 70 per cent try and the Central Electricity Regulatory Com-
of the project proceeds, with the government mission will be the regulator. The notification is
charging 30 per cent as an environmental cess. silent on the voluntary carbon market or the is-
However, it added that if local communities are sue of export of credits.
affected, project developers would need to provide Simultaneously, the Union environment min-
a quarter of their share of the proceeds. istry in June 2023, notified the Draft Green
Rwanda has declared that it would put a floor Credit Programme Implementation Rules, 2023.
price on carbon offset projects of US $30 The programme is a domestic voluntary market
(R2,473)—which in turn would lead to better that incentivises voluntary environmental ac-
quality projects. In 2022, Papua New Guinea tions so that it promotes government’s Mission
and Honduras issued a moratorium on voluntary life (Lifestyle for Environment). It has listed ac-
carbon credit schemes. Indonesia, in June, is- tions, including planting trees, which would get
sued regulations for carbon trading in the for- “green credits” and is described as “singular unit
estry sector, under which owners of the land of an incentive provided for a specified activity
would be allowed to trade in carbon credits. In delivering a positive impact on the environment”.
August it announced the setting up of a national It goes on to say that an activity generating green
carbon exchange. credits under the green credit programme may
Then the Nigerian government has said that also acquire carbon credits for the same activity
it is interested in linking emission reduction cer- under the carbon market. These green credits
tificates from ongoing activities in the country to will be traded on a domestic market platform.
its Nationally Determined Certificates (ndcs). The steering committee will be in charge of
“We are entering a new phase of carbon mar- governance while the administrator will be re-
kets,” Hugh Salway, head of markets at project sponsible for implementing the programme, in-
certifier Gold Standard, told S&P Global, an cluding its management, monitoring and opera-
American publicly traded corporation. “More gov- tion. The Indian Council of Forestry Research
ernments may take steps that affect the volun- and Education will be the administrator, who
tary market in the next months, some of which will create technical or sectoral committees to
may present opportunities for investors and some develop methodologies, standards and processes
may come with risks,” he added. for registration of green credit activities and
grant of green credits. The trading service pro-
INDIA’S NOTIFICATION ON vider, accredited by the administrator, will look
CARBON TRADE after the trading aspect. Perhaps the most im-
India is enacting legislations and policies by dif- portant aspect of this scheme is that it opens the
ferent ministries—and it is not clear how coordi- compensatory afforestation activities by private
nated these actions are—to create and regulate a entities to incentives and participation in the do-
carbon credits market and to incentivise people mestic carbon market. It will be important to see
to join a green credits programme. how the government plans to ensure verification


of these credits, being done on non-forest land by solar projects with storage, offshore wind, hydro-
private and public agencies. gen and the best available technologies for the
Then, separately, as an implementation meas- hard-to-abate sector. In this list, the govern-
ure for the Paris Agreement, the government in ment’s effort is to ensure that bilateral trading of
February 2023, issued a list of activities that carbon credits is in the high-end sectors, which
could be considered for trading of carbon credits would be expensive for India to undertake. It
under bilateral programmes under Article 6.2. would work for transformative action and not uti-
This list includes renewable projects, including lise the low-hanging projects, which are cheaper.
ENSURE TRANSPARENCY
WAY AHEAD THE FIRST, and the obvious step, is to ensure
A t the next UN climate conference (cop28) in

Dubai later this year, the issue of
regulation of a carbon market will be discussed.
transparency in the market. The details of the
projects should be listed. There should be infor-
mation about the price that each credit has
World leaders need to learn from the mistakes of earned. dte-cse investigation into the workings of
the voluntary carbon market so that this new the big project developers, carbon registries and
market mechanism, which is designed for the big and small non-profits involved in this busi-
transformation in the world, does not repeat those. ness showed there is no transparency; communi-
One of the fundamental flaws of the voluntary ties are unaware of carbon credits; there is over-
carbon market is that it has no basis of the price estimation of carbon credits; ownership rights on
that it puts on the project; at times it is inflated trees of poor tribals have been transferred to pri-
and at times it is so low that the project becomes vate entities; and worse, there is no real sharing
unviable. It seems that the entire purpose of this of benefits with the people who are required to
market is to serve the interest of the retinue of change their behaviour. In this way, the gains of
project developers, auditors and all the others who the project would be fictitious as the design is
make a cut in this carbon business. flawed. If governments want to design a mecha-
The current carbon markets could end up in- nism that has credibility, it must be based on
creasing emissions in the world. The buyers of the rules and transparency.
credit—say an airline company that has assured
its customers to offset their carbon footprint or a PAY FOR REAL CHANGE
food company that has declared itself net-zero— THE SECOND step is to decide once and for all the
have continued to emit; they have even increased objective of the market—voluntary, bilateral or
their emissions, saying that they have bought multilateral—and design rules accordingly. If the
credits. But as these credits have been over-esti- purpose of the market is to invest in projects that
mated or do not really exist, the reductions are will lead to reduction in emissions in different
notional. This is a double-jeopardy. This is what parts of the world, then the market must be based
the climate-risked world does not need. on paying for the real cost of the projects. Consider
So, what should be done differently? Here’s five renewable energy projects, which are critical for
steps that can make this market effective. making the transition to clean energy in countries
CONTINUED ON PAGE 56 >>


NIGERIA
(2023)
Nigeria announces plans to regulate
the voluntary carbon market. The country
says that sellers of carbon credits need
to comply with local regulations and that
it is preparing proposals for carbon pricing.
The government wants to ensure that
every opportunity for harvesting emission
reduction certificate from ongoing
activities in Nigeria is linked to
its Nationally Determined
Contributions
RWANDA
(2023)
In an effort to shift the
control of carbon pricing
from buyers to Rwanda, the
government says that it will
HONDURAS not sell carbon credits
(2022) below $30 per tonne
of CO2e
Honduras imposes a
moratorium on the sale of
forest-based carbon credits to
avoid the colonisation of
carbon in the country’s
forests ZIMBABWE
(2023)
Zimbabwe says it would closely
regulate voluntary carbon offset trading
over fears of greenwashing and also
ensure that local communities benefits from
it. The country plans to charge an environment
levy of 30 per cent on projects (and allow
developers to keep 70 per cent share) if
communities are not involved. If local
communities are affected, project
developers would need to provide a
quarter of the 70 per cent to
the people

ATTEMPTS TO
REGULATE Governments across
the world have begun to
voice concerns about the
unregulated nature of the
voluntary carbon market
EGYPT
(2023)
Egypt's financial regulator puts
forth regulations on the process
of verifying and certifying carbon
credits to provide an ‘effective’
mechanism for measuring,
recording and documenting
projects INDONESIA
KENYA (2022)
(2023) The government imposes
conditions on the export of
Kenya proposes a new
carbon credits. It had earlier sent
legislative draft of the Carbon
a letter to Verra and a few other
Credit Trading and Benefit Sharing
voluntary market registries, telling
Bill, 2023, to establish a regulatory
them that they cannot issue
framework for carbon credit
credits from 2021 without
trading and benefit-sharing,
the government’s
and an authority to
permission
oversee the trading PAPUA NEW
GUINEA
(2022)
The government issues a
TANZANIA moratorium on voluntary carbon
credit deals to protect the
(2022) country from carbon scams,
Tanzania introduces a list involving consent and
of regulations to control benefits-sharing
and manage carbon
trading projects
MALAWI
(2023)
Malawi says it would
ZAMBIA review voluntary carbon
market projects on
(2022) its territory
Zambia develops Interim
Guidelines for Handling of Carbon
Markets and Trading In Zambia that
aim to ensure the country’s trade
and regulation of carbon meet
international best practices
while also benefiting local
communities that own the Source: Government reports;
official documents
natural resources

of the South. The current voluntary carbon market
pays a fraction of the capital cost of these projects
in India. It is just a sprinkle of sugar on the already
paid-for cake—paid, in many cases, through the
scarce public finances. This is when the capital cost
of these clean energy projects is still lower than if
the investment was made in already industrialised
countries, which need to offset emissions. So, the
carbon markets could be made to pay for this in the
countries of the South, at lower costs—but not dirty
cheap. This is the real issue.
It is the same with biogas, which allows house-
holds to switch from burning polluting biomass in
stoves to using clean energy. They could leapfrog
to low-emission technologies. But currently, the
voluntary market is farcical in its pricing of this
community energy device. It pays anything be-
tween 2 and 7 per cent of the cost of building the of the stove, which is what is given to households
device; in most cases, the rest is paid by the In- in order for project developers to earn credits, is a
dian government’s subsidy programme. In this im- small component of their overall earnings. The cost
moral business, the rich who need their emissions of the improved cookstove, which is all that house-
offset, are being subsidised by the poor communi- holds get in terms of carbon credit benefits, adds
ties and governments. up to barely 20 per cent of what the developer
In the case of nature-based solutions, the ques- would earn over the five to six years of lifespan of
tion again is the cost of planting trees, the cost of the project. In other words, 80 per cent of the car-
labour to take care of the trees and the opportu- bon revenue is kept as profits and it is a handsome
nity cost of the land, which is being used for se- amount as each such project has thousands of de-
questering carbon. vices to be distributed. And, this is assuming that
The market has to be “real” and not based on the devices are supplied for free. At place, as we
the mechanisms of a non-transparent exchange have found, poor households have actually paid for
between buyers and sellers. In the design of the this cookstoves, against which the developer and
voluntary or official carbon market, it would be its rich offset clients have made a killing.
important to put a floor price to carbon credit. The The fact is that there is no incentive for these
Rwandan government’s proposal of $30 (R2,473) households to keep using the stoves. If they were
per credit would be a good starting point. receiving money annually, there would be some
incentive for compliance. It is the same with all
SHARE THE PROCEEDS other such projects, from growing trees to in-
THE THIRD step to ponder on is who this market is stalling biogas plants to abate and avoid emis-
meant for. Currently, the market only seems to sions. If communities continue to earn and get a
work in the interest of the project developers and, substantial share—not peanuts—of the proceeds
of course, the paraphernalia of consultants and of the carbon market they would be part of the
auditors. This also means that it is ineffective in project of change. In this way, they are just used
terms of real emission reduction. The communities and discarded.
get virtually nothing from the proceeds and this So, the carbon market must be required to
means that they also have no stake in the emis- share the proceeds annually with communities
sion reduction programme. and this should be verifiable and substantial.
Take the issue of household devices, in this This is also what the original Zimbabwe proposal
case, cooking stoves. This market segment is grow- said. It is important we listen to this and not
ing exponentially. Understandably so, as it is lucra- the profit motives of this creative carbon
tive for the project developers. In this case, the cost market accountants.


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KEEP IT SIMPLE Clean Development Mechanism (cdm), when coun-
THE FOURTH is to accept that the voluntary car- tries like India did not have nationally deter-
bon market also shows how the all the King’s mined targets. Now, we have to reduce emissions.
smart men have fallen. Despite spending on veri- The question is, in whose account should these
fication, auditing and registration, these agen- carbon credits be listed? This is not a hypotheti-
cies seem to have got so much wrong. They can- cal question. But a real one. To achieve the target
not even calculate the emission reduction of one of 50 per cent of our electric power requirements
cookstove—Greenways says its stove reduces 2-4 from non-fossil fuel sources, every megawatt of
tonnes of CO2e each year; eki says the reduction renewable power, including hydroelectricity, will
is 5.7 tonnes. We know that this has to do with need to be counted and factored in. But 675 In-
thermal dynamics of a small household device dian renewable energy projects are registered
but there is no way it can be so different, espe- under Verra and Gold Standard registries for 268
cially as the fuel used is still wood. Then they million carbon credits, of which 148 million have
cannot get the baseline right and assume that also retired (or claimed against offsets). So, how
distributing an improved device will mean auto- can these be accounted for in the Indian ndc? Or
matic emission reduction. can they? Will this not lead to double accounting?
All this means over-estimation of emission re- It is the same with nature-based solutions. In-
ductions—we have literally fudged the data. One dia’s submission to unfccc is that it will “create an
lesson that must be learnt is to keep the project additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of
design simple and not to trust the army of consult- CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree
ants and profiteers in this business. It means cover by 2030”. It is also known that the bulk of
keeping their role minimal and to keep the control afforestation is happening in trees outside forests
of projects with public institutions and people. (tofs, as they are known). So, who gets to account
for these trees, which, in the case of Araku Valley,
COUNTRIES MUST ACCOUNT are now “owned” by Livelihoods Funds?
THE FIFTH and the most crucial lesson is that the This is why the voluntary carbon market
ownership of trees grown on the land of the trib- must work within the confines of the govern-
als in Araku valley has been transferred to a for- ment’s ndc —it has to contribute to this. The only
eign entity. Let’s for a moment, forget that these “exportable” credit has to be the one that is ex-
lands are under Schedule V of the Indian Consti- pensive for the country to do—where there is an
tution, which prohibits any outsider from divert- advantage for the country as it can transform its
ing the claim of tribals. The fact is that these emission trajectory.
trees are grown by people on their lands. Under The fact is that the current voluntary carbon
which agreement can any agencies have the market is based on cheap options and this means
right to decide on how the tree will now be that countries have “sold” off the lowest-hanging
used—harvested or not. It is the same question fruit—the options of emission reductions that
when it comes to countries. Even more so. they could afford. They would now be in the bal-
Under the Paris Agreement all countries have ance sheet of foreign entities and governments.
taken on emission reduction targets. These are This will only mean that countries will not be
voluntary, but submitted to the UN Framework able to afford to make the investments in the
Convention on Climate Change and are expected hard-to-abate options; and these will contribute
to be complied with. This means India has a com- to emissions and jeopardise our common future.
mitment as submitted to reduce emission inten- Both the voluntary or official carbon markets
sity of its economy; to augment non-fossil energy must work within rules that are designed for in-
so that it can meet 50 per cent of its electric pow- tegrity—not just for companies, but for communi-
er requirements by 2030 and to increase the ties and the planet. D T E @down2earthindia
“sink”—grow forests to sequester carbon. These
are part of our nationally determined contribu-
Note: Reserve Bank of India’s exchange rate on June
tions (ndc) under the Paris Agreement. This is 1, 2023, has been used for all currency conversions.
unlike the time of the Kyoto Protocol and its As per the rate, US $1 equals R82.45


SCHOOL FOR SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
RESIDENTIAL TRAINING
COMPRESSED BIOGAS (CBG)

POTENTIAL, TECHNOLOGY, POLICY,
OPERATIONS AND ECONOMICS
Venue
Date Last date to apply ANIL AGARWAL ENVIRONMENT
NOVEMBER 29- OCTOBER 28, TRAINING INSTITUTE (AAETI),
DECEMBER 1, 2023 2023
NIMLI, RAJASTHAN
The Indian government has set a target to raise the share of gas in the energy
mix: 15 per cent by 2030 from the current 6.5 per cent. This move aims to HIGHLIGHTS
transform India into a gas-oriented economy. Presently, India produces 34,000
million standard cubic meter of gas (MMSCM) but consumes 64,000 MMSCM,
resulting in a substantial shortfall of 30,000 MMSCM. This deficit accounts THE PROGRAMME IS OPEN TO
for 47 per cent of the total consumption, which is fulfilled through imports.
Government officials,
Compressed Biogas (CBG) as a domestic energy source can play a key role in
regulators, renewable energy
addressing this gap and helping the nation achieve its clean energy goals.
nodal agencies, urban
The CBG production potential in India is estimated at around 62 million development authorities, civil
metric tonne, as per the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). society organizations, start-ups,
The Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) scheme professors, researchers, private
aims to tap 15 million metric tonne of this. In the 2023-24 Union Budget, sector consultants, individual
finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has earmarked Rs 10,000 crore for the practitioners, and international
establishment of 200 CBG plants and 300 community and cluster-based plants. participants.professionals
In addition to this budgetary allocation, the government has introduced several
policies and initiatives to accelerate the implementation of CBG projects
COURSE FEE
in India. These measures include MNRE’s Waste to Energy programme, the
Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), and the Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources »G
overnment Officials:
(GOBAR)-DHAN scheme. However, despite these policy efforts, the number of Registration fee is waived
CBG plants currently installed on the ground is only 46. This slow progress can for Central and State
be attributed to the limited dissemination of CBG-related information among Government officials*
potential investors.
» Indian Participants: R21,000
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is offering a tailor-made
» F oreign Participants: US $300
three-day residential training programme on ‘CBG: Potential, Technology,
Policy, Operation and Economics’. The high-impact training has been *Cost of travel to Delhi and back for
conceived to provide an end-to-end solution to design and install a CBG the nominated officials to be borne by
plant that aligns with the principles of circular economy, energy transition, and the nominating government authority
sustainable development.
The course fee is inclusive of
FOR FURTHER DETAILS, PLEASE CONTACT THE COURSE COORDINATOR travel from Delhi to the training
RAHUL JAIN, institute, accommodation,
Deputy Programme Manager, School for Sustainable Energy, AAETI, food, resource person, and
Renewable Energy Unit, CSE training kit.
FREEMobile: +91 8901448131
More Newspapers Email: rahul.jain@cseindia.org
& Magazines https://t.me/thehinduuuuuuu & More Queries https://t.me/Ramesh_Jejani
59RESIDENTIAL TRAINING on Compressed Biogas.indd 59 25/09/23 4:08 PM

R.N.I. NO. 53588/92 POSTAL REGN. NO. DL(S)-17/3109/2021-2023
ISSN 0971-8079. Licensed to Post without Pre-payment U(SE)-44/2021-2023 at Lodhi Road HO,
New Delhi-110003. Published on 1st of every month. POSTED ON: 2-3 of the same fortnight, Total pages: 60
COMMON SENSE
IS NOW
INTERACTIVE
Visit
An Interactive platform for informative, unique and visually

compelling content form that uses graphic elements to convey hard
data, paired with interactive elements, right on your screens
www.downtoearth.org.in/infographics
60Data centre ad.indd 60 25/09/23 3:58 PM

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INVESTIGATION

1-15 OCTOBER, 2023

INTEGRATED ONLINE AND ONSITE

PART A: BASIC LEARNING (ONLINE) COURSE FEE

PART B: ADVANCED LEARNING (ONSITE)

02EIA December 2023.indd 2 25/09/23 3:56 PM

03Opening Illustrationindd.indd 3 26/09/23 5:08 PM

FOUNDER EDITOR Anil Agarwal

Vol 32, No 10; Total No of Pages: 60

Down To Earth does not endorse the content of

01Cover.indd 1 27/09/23 12:37 PM

04-05Contents+Credits.indd 4 27/09/23 12:37 PM

04-05Contents+Credits.indd 5 26/09/23 5:18 PM

06-13Cover story-carbon market_Opener & Section 1_redesigned.indd 6 26/09/23 4:53 PM

06-13Cover story-carbon market_Opener & Section 1_redesigned.indd 7 26/09/23 4:53 PM

8 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 OCTOBER 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

06-13Cover story-carbon market_Opener & Section 1_redesigned.indd 8 26/09/23 4:53 PM

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 OCTOBER 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 9

06-13Cover story-carbon market_Opener & Section 1_redesigned.indd 9 26/09/23 4:53 PM

06-13Cover story-carbon market_Opener & Section 1_redesigned.indd 10 26/09/23 4:53 PM

n India has 1,451 n Carbon n Indian entities

06-13Cover story-carbon market_Opener & Section 1_redesigned.indd 11 26/09/23 4:53 PM

06-13Cover story-carbon market_Opener & Section 1_redesigned.indd 12 27/09/23 12:38 PM

Transportation Waste Industrial and Chemical Carbon Capture

06-13Cover story-carbon market_Opener & Section 1_redesigned.indd 13 27/09/23 12:38 PM

14-15Nabard AD27.6X39.8Cm Spread.indd 14 25/09/23 3:56 PM

14-15Nabard AD27.6X39.8Cm Spread.indd 15 25/09/23 3:56 PM

16-22Cover story-carbon market_Section 2_redesigned.indd 16 26/09/23 5:20 PM

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18 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 OCTOBER 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

16-22Cover story-carbon market_Section 2_redesigned.indd 18 26/09/23 5:20 PM

VALIDATOR & VERIFIER REGISTRY

TRADER CARBON EXCHANGE

1 Project developer hires a 3 Developer applies for 5 Developer trades

4 Registry issues carbon 6 End buyers retire

16-22Cover story-carbon market_Section 2_redesigned.indd 19 26/09/23 5:20 PM

Project Type India’s % India’s %

Transportation 45 11 24.44% 462,757 186,613 40.33%

Grand Total 6,481 1,451 22.39% 1,415,630,648 298,008,202 21.05%

Source: Berkeley Carbon Trading Project, University of California, US

Countries and their preferred carbon-offset projects

Agriculture Carbon capture Chemical Forestry Household In

20 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 OCTOBER 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

16-22Cover story-carbon market_Section 2_redesigned.indd 20 26/09/23 5:20 PM

What’s a carbon credit worth in the market?

Biomass 0.75 9.58

Energy efficiency 4.5 12.84

Fugitive emissions 0.7 1.35

Landfill gas 5.95 5.95

Source: CTX, August 2023 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Industrial Renewable Transportation Waste

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 OCTOBER 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 21

16-22Cover story-carbon market_Section 2_redesigned.indd 21 26/09/23 5:20 PM

22 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 OCTOBER 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

16-22Cover story-carbon market_Section 2_redesigned.indd 22 26/09/23 5:20 PM

RESIDENTIAL TRAINING PROGRAMME

Date: OCTOBER 17-20, 2023 Venue

FOR FURTHER DETAILS, PLEASE CONTACT

23Waste management- A cradle-to-cradle approach.indd 23 26/09/23 10:24 AM

24-48Cover story-carbon market_Section 3_redesigned.indd 24 26/09/23 5:12 PM

24-48Cover story-carbon market_Section 3_redesigned.indd 25 26/09/23 5:12 PM

26 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 OCTOBER 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN