India is soon going to announce the detailed rules for a carbon market to control its greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris Agreement.
For some of us, it might be difficult to wrap our heads around the concept of a carbon market – how do we sell a gas we don’t produce as a commodity – though we might be worried sick about the melting of the Greenland, Antarctic ice sheets, climate change, and its drivers called greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide.
The Reporters’ Collective’s Tapasya and Nitin Sethi have set out to defog the carbon emissions market and simplify the complexities for our readers.
In the story, the duo will explain to you the nitty-gritty of the carbon emissions market that the Indian government is planning out. And, try addressing some fundamental questions about such a market that the government prefers to postpone the answers to.
India’s carbon market journey will begin with a government-run voluntary carbon market in which companies set emission targets for themselves and trade their carbon savings in a market set up and regulated by the government.
The most important question is, will the government allow Indian companies to sell their carbon savings to foreign entities in the upcoming market? And, does that mean the Indian companies will rake in money at a cost to the average Indian citizen?
The story also cautions us about a similar attempt at energy efficiency trading by the government that flopped.
Click here to read the story that answers these questions in an easy-to-digest form.