Himachal Pradesh has signed an agreement on Emission Reduction Purchase with World Bank, a Clean Development Mechanism Bio-Carbon Sub-Project of Himachal Pradesh under Mid Himalayan Watershed Development Project, here on Sunday.

The agreement was signed by Sudipto Roy, Additional Chief Secretary (Forests), on behalf of the Himachal Pradesh Government and Hubert Nove Josserand, Deputy Country Director of World Bank, on behalf of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank-Bio Carbon Fund), in presence of Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. The agreement would be operative till December 2018.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that Himachal Pradesh had pioneered the project in the country as 4,000 hectares of land would be brought under the project — the highest in the world.

He said that the broad objective of the project was to sequester greenhouse gases by expanding forestry plantations on mostly degraded lands apart from creating a carbon sink besides fulfilling global and national environmental objectives.

He further said that it would develop innovative cost-effective ways to minimise climate change risks and provide multiple benefits to the poor farmers through meeting their needs of timber, pulpwood, firewood and minor forest produces alongwith carbon credits in cash incentive.

Dhumal further said that the State Government would be considering synchronisation of the various administrative units on completion of the ongoing census operation so that each such project could benefit the entire unit.