The Lok Sabha has passed the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, last month (August 2022), clearing the way for establishing carbon credit markets.
According to the government, in addition to helping India achieve its climate goals, the Bill ensures that about 50 percent of installed electric power capacity is generated from non-fossil sources by reducing the emissions intensity of GDP (that is, the volume of emissions per unit of GDP) by 45 percent. This Bill amends the 2001 Energy Conservation Act, which was last revised in 2010.
India promised to reach zero carbon emissions by 2070 and reduce its emissions by one million tonnes in the next 10 years at UN’s COP26 summit in November 2021. Establishing a carbon credit market is the first step toward this goal.
A latest report from Deloitte Economics Institute discussed that India should act now to prevent the country from losing $35 trillion in economic potential over the next 50 years due to unmitigated climate changes. The report also reveals how the country could gain $11 trillion in economic value over the same period by limiting rising global temperatures and realising its potential to export decarbonization.
