CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu is ranked fourth in carbon credits with wind energy, bio-diesel, plantation and renewable energy sectors taking to Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), said Sasikant K Panigrahi, Director, Environment and Forests, Planning Commission, Government of India.
‘‘The state has a lot of potential but initiatives have been so far from individuals and as a whole the awareness on CDM is lacking,’’ he told this website's newspaper. The PSUs have to set examples, he said emphasising the need for an integrated support from the state also.
CDM was one of the programmes born out of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, mainly for developing nations, wherein the ‘‘polluters pay’’ concept comes into force.
Indian industries, with an infusion and investment on new and cleaner technologies, can cut down emission of Green House Gases and get paid for emission reduction after obtaining certification.
India was a global leader in terms of projects taken up in CDM, Panigrahi said, and added that the mechanism envisaged sustainable development and real, measurable long-term benefits for the eco-system.
The CDM process involved project design, validation and registration, monitoring project and then verification, certification and issuance of Certified Emission Reduction (CER), he said. As a nation, there was about 550 million CERs to be generated through CDM till 2012, he said. In India, there were three types of industrial houses implementing CDM. The majority left everything to consultants and merely signed wherever was needed and lost out on CERs, he pointed out.
There are many who negotiate and go in for a 50:50 margin, but a few work on the processes on their own and then talk to the consultants for success. The majority should follow the third model, said Panigrahi, a member of the Designated National Authority on CDM, since its inception. The CDM process was totally transparent and flexible, he told this website's newspaper on the sidelines of a seminar on CDM organised by FICCI, Tamil Nadu State Council.
FICCI advisor Alop K Mittal said the federation would render its service to select companies picked for handholding them right through the end. ‘‘We will also be rendering help in selling the CERs in the international market,’’ he said.
FICCI Tamil Nadu state council chairman M Rafeeque Ahmed said the council would have an exclusive, interactive and query-based portal for CDM.
