{"id":24082,"date":"2024-04-26T20:59:30","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T15:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=24082"},"modified":"2024-04-27T12:03:32","modified_gmt":"2024-04-27T06:33:32","slug":"green-credit-programme-an-opportunity-or-a-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/editorial-analysis\/26-04-2024\/green-credit-programme-an-opportunity-or-a-challenge","title":{"rendered":"Green Credit Programme: An Opportunity or a Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS 3\/Environment&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-0dab4a35479cb7a88ac0f778de143bb9\" style=\"color:#015aa7\"><strong>In Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Environment Ministry issued further guidelines on its Green Credit Programme (GCP), two months after it had prescribed rules governing the first initiative, afforestation.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Modifying the rules will prioritise the restoration of ecosystems over mere planting of trees.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-87f070c7d3e64687529a4fecef929c79\" style=\"color:#015aa7\"><strong>About Green Credit Programme<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong>Green Credit Programme<\/strong> was announced by the Environment Ministry in October <strong>2023<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It is an initiative within the governments Lifestyle for Environment or LIFE movement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The GCP programme presents itself as an \u201cinnovative, market-based mechanism\u201d to incentivise \u201cvoluntary actions\u201d for environmental conservation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Its goal is to lay an emphasis on sustainability, reduce waste and improve the natural environment.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Under this, individuals, organisations and companies \u2014 public and private \u2014 would be encouraged to invest in sectors ranging from afforestation, water conservation, stemming air-pollution, waste management, mangrove conservation and in return be eligible to receive \u2018green credits.<strong>\u2019<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>An autonomous body of the Ministry, <strong>the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), i<\/strong>s in charge of administering the programme. They will define methodologies to calculate \u2018green credits\u2019 that result from the activities prescribed.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&nbsp;They will also manage a trading platform whereby such credits could be traded.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-c4356fb037a98f74125f8b2a511fa975\" style=\"color:#015aa7\"><strong>Developments&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In February 2024 , the Ministry prescribed the rules governing the first of these initiatives \u2014 afforestation.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Broadly, companies, organisations and individuals could offer to pay for afforestation projects in specific tracts of degraded forest and wasteland.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The actual tree planting would be carried out by the State forest departments.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Two years after planting and following an evaluation by the ICFRE, each such planted tree could be worth one \u2018green credit.\u2019&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Those who are successful in fulfilling the criteria will be given an estimate of the costs involved in afforestation.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-852de0420489958706153d3718353d4a\" style=\"color:#015aa7\"><strong>Challenges&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The scientific rationale behind assigning \u2018credits\u2019 based on the quantity of trees is unclear.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There is criticism that these initiatives may be used to circumvent existing laws, particularly those that deal with forest conservation.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There is a risk of &#8216;<strong>Permanence&#8217; of carbon credits,<\/strong> which means that an individual or a farmer may cut the trees after getting payment for the carbon credit, or the trees may be burned in a fire or attacked by pests, or the trees may not grow at the rate required, given the degraded or poor fertility status of soils and erratic rainfall.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&nbsp;The activities may or may not lead to real, measurable environmental benefits, particularly carbon sequestration benefits, contributing to the mitigation of climate change.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-4611acf7eec1b8666a8111ab7960a2ee\" style=\"color:#015aa7\"><strong>Conclusion&nbsp; and Way Forward&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Operationalization of GCP on a large scale requires the establishment of institutional arrangements, for which the government has selected the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) as the nodal agency, with a steering committee and a technical committee.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Successful implementation requires developing a rigorous methodology to measure, verify, and report environmental benefits.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>GCP is a market-based mechanism, which means there must be demand for the green credits, such as tonnes of carbon sequestered through tree planting.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>More importantly, there must be an attractive price for the green carbon credits.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&nbsp;The programme was currently in a \u201cpilot project\u201d mode and questions such as how shrubs and grasses could be quantified in terms of green credits were still being worked out.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Mains Practice Question\u00a0<\/strong><br><strong>[Q]<\/strong> What is the Green Credit Programme? Discuss the Challenges and Opportunities linked to this programme.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Daily-Editorial-Analysis-25-04-2024-1.pdf\">Download PDF<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Environment Ministry issued further guidelines on its Green Credit Programme (GCP), two months after it had prescribed rules governing the first initiative, afforestation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-analysis"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24082"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24104,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24082\/revisions\/24104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}