India launches National consultation for air pollutants

The Economic Times , Friday, March 25, 2011
Correspondent : PTI

NEW DELHI: To meet the challenges of pollution on both local and global scale, India on Thursday launched a national technical consultation for air pollutants on a market-friendly emissions scheme.

Speaking at the inaugural session, environment minister Jairam Ramesh said it is "a very small" but "a necessary step" in environmental regulation to address global climate change.

"There is a debate on carbon trade globally. Today what India is doing with this initiative is a carbon trade for local polluters," Ramesh said.

Advocating "stricter and more robust" environmental regulations, the Minister said, it certainly could do with less environmental regulators.

"So, we had to find a way of regulating without regulators," Ramesh said.

"I look upon today's initiative as a first step that India is taking to enforce environmental regulations in a market-friendly manner," Ramesh said.

Maintaining that the government is not doing "this carbon trade initiative because of the global negotiations on Climate change ," he said the initiative is linked to tackle public health problem due to the local polluters.

Ramesh said this initiative would also "convince the market wallahs" that the environment ministry, which is being criticised for being anti-market and anti-industry, is also interested in the growth of market in an environment friendly manner.

Emissions trading as a regulatory instrument can transform the trade-off between environmental quality and growth for the betterment of the Indian environment.

Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are the leading industrial states and industial growth in these states has contributed to growth in emissions of various pollutants in air and water, including particulate matter.

These states, as a pilot initiative, have now started implementing market-based instruments, such as Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS) for air pollution. The scheme has the benefit of enabling lower pollution levels at lower overall costs of compliance.

The ETS allows the regulator to set a cap on the aggregate level of pollution permitted, and then allow a self -regulating system to ensure that pollution does not exceed this cap.

 
SOURCE : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/environment/pollution/india-launches-national-consultation-for-air-pollutants/articleshow/7780697.cms
 


Back to pevious page



The NetworkAbout Us  |  Our Partners  |  Concepts   
Resources :  Databases  |  Publications  |  Media Guide  |  Suggested Links
Happenings :  News  |  Events  |  Opinion Polls  |  Case Studies
Contact :  Guest Book  |  FAQs |  Email Us