India called out EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) publicly and comprehensively. At the WTO Public Forum it made a compelling argument against such unilateral climate measures. That the coin has dropped was proven by the long intervention that the EU had to make to explain itself.

India itself has moved positively and rapidly on the climate action front. It simultaneously notified two schemes in June 2023, designed for climate action — the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) and the Green Credit Programme (GCP). CCTS will require industry from particular sectors to reduce emissions, and the GCP will encourage common citizens to create carbon sinks and be partners in climate action.

If the CCTS is the stick, the GCP is the carrot in the climate change effort. Its biggest strength is on-boarding small climate actions in everyday life by the ordinary person. If implemented scientifically, consistently, and transparently, the GCP can be a game- changer. It can offer the world a spectacular template to hand over climate action agency to the common woman.

Negative externalities

Apart from the Korean green credit card scheme activated since 2016, there have been hardly any nano scale environmental action programmes implemented elsewhere in the world. The West is habituated to institutionalised extravagant consumption of energy in daily life, with per capita consumption far exceeding the global averages. It is searching for solutions that will allow ever greater energy consumption. Each solution — solar, wind, nuclear, hydro, EVs — is fraught with intractable negative externalities — be it cost, end-of-life waste, or critical minerals consumption.

It is only change in lifestyles and moderation in consumption patterns that appear to be a lasting solution to the climate crisis. The GCP lists a range of sectors including tree plantation, water management and conservation, waste management, sustainable agriculture, and air pollution reduction. Green credits will be given to even individual level actions in these sectors and create much needed green offsets.

Scientifically rigorous assessment of what constitutes a single credit will be a challenge, especially given the overlapping outcomes of actions. Let us consider the popular biogas plants. These renewable energy generators have been the Indian farmers’ friend for decades.

While utilising cow dung and other organic waste, the farmer has acted to generate green electricity, reduce air pollution, save the tree cover, improve soil health and manage waste sustainably. How will the green credit be then assessed and measured?

The measurement, reporting and verification of green credits will be keenly scrutinised by the international scientific community and must pass that test. Any climate related measure no longer remains the interest of only national actors.

Do we have the wherewithal to create the necessary standards, and implement them through ICFRE (Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education)? To be successful, the GCP will have to be a massive exercise reaching out and convincing the entire Indian population to participate. A strong IT backbone is nowadays a sine qua non of any measure designed for mass operation. Will a separate body be necessary for implementation?

Solid foundation

But once a robust system has been put in place, implementation could be achieved rapidly. India has proven its capabilities in operating at scale and speed on the last mile. India’s digital public infrastructure offers a solid foundation which can be used to link environmental actions to a citizen. India has used geospatial technologies effectively in its services delivery programmes. These can operate as flanking systems to bring the GCP into quick effect.

Technological carbon removal is at this point extremely expensive and energy intensive. Nature based carbon removal seems to be a sustainable solution. Media reports suggest that cash rich corporates from West Asia have taken over entire tracts of lands from poor North African countries to create carbon sinks and carbon offsets by accounting for the carbon sequestration created by the green cover and forests. Carbon removal was the focus of the African Climate Summit too.

India’s international commitments at UNFCCC are clear-eyed. It knows that it has to grow, substantially and rapidly. India’s population owes to itself much higher incomes and per capita GDP. A formalised mechanism under the GCP can reinforce both — reduction of India’s emissions intensity and GDP growth.

Millions of farmers, cooperatives and non-profits in India and elsewhere in the world have been diligently creating green credits in the sectors listed in the GCP. But have received neither recognition nor monetary value for their positive climate actions. If green credits through the GCP can provide concrete value — moral, environmental, and monetary — Indian citizens can create humongous climate action. India’s smallest and the feeblest entrepreneur can change the global environmental grammar if the GCP delivers value to her.

The writer is a former IRS officer and has negotiated the India-EU and India-EFTA FTAs in the Department of Commerce. Views are personal

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