The Hindu : National : India leads in CDM projects

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 18, 2005

National

National

India leads in CDM projects

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 17. India leads the world in terms of the number of projects accorded to it by the CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) Executive Board, as per the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol. So far India has received 54 CDM projects.

This was stated here today by the Environment and Forests Minister, A. Raja, delivering the inaugural address at "Clear Skies'', a meeting organised by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Indian Carbon Market Group (ICMG) to mark the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol.

"The vigorous project development activity in our country, and the proactive stands adopted by the Government, has propelled India to become the most favourable destination for CDM investments,'' Mr. Raja said, adding that at the national level, India had created an efficient National CDM authority for according approvals.

"We have also identified a number of State-level institutions for helping developers in project preparation.''

The Minister said the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, and especially its CDM would help create a global constituency of investors, financial institutions and industries, who would have a significant stake in the continued expansion of the clean energy sector.

Quoting a European Union (EU) estimate, Mr. Raja said annually 430 million tonnes of carbon dioxide must be reduced worldwide to meet the Kyoto Protocol's emission reduction targets.

Observing that CDM was a new concept, and the various formalities at the international level to take advantage of it still seemed complex and time-consuming, the Minister called for a faster, more efficient, and more user-friendly international CDM project registration process to attract more financial resources and institutions.

Emission reduction

"Despite the development of Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA) and the CDM market looking more dynamic than ever, there are still some risks and barriers to be considered by the project developers and financial institutions before engaging in a CDM project,'' he added and pointed out that associated CDM process risks, which were new and somewhat complex to project developers and financial institutions, needed to be appropriately addressed.

Mr. Raja said Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) obtained during the period from year 2000 up to the beginning of the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period (2008-2012) can be used to achieve compliance of the Kyoto Protocol provisions as of now.

"According to the World Bank, almost 61 million tonnes of project-based carbon certificates for compliance purposes changed hands in the first half of 2004. For the whole 2003, the figure was 78 million tonnes meaning that the traded volumes have almost doubled in 2004 for the second successive year," he said.

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