Local industries can avail carbon trading option, says expert

The New Indian Express, Jan 4, 2008

BHUBANESWAR: Good news for industries in Orissa. After the exemption of Indian and Chinese industries from the Kyoto pact at recently concluded UN Climate Change Conference at Bali, now carbon trading facility are also applicable to units producing less carbon dioxide than their prescribed limit or canopy level.

According to United Nation Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC), since the units are polluting the climate they are expected to buy carbon credits in their favour.

But now they will be rather benefited in terms of monetary gains if they are emitting less than their canopy level and trade the balance for another polluting unit of the West.

Apart from the industries, in Orissa there is a lot of scope in critical sites like coastal sheltered belt, degraded or eroded ravine belts, waste lands or uncultivable fallow land and dry terrains of Nuapara, Balangir, Kantabanjhi and parts of Kalahandi under extension plantation programmes, thereby increasing livelihood security through carbon credits in international markets, says assistant professor Ashok Kumar Sahoo of Department of Forestry, OUAT.

After the Bali conference, Australia has become the biggest potential buyer of certified emission reduction (CER) to compensate its carbon emission.

According to UNFCCC norms following Kyoto pact, the developed nations like US and European Union have to pay for the carbon fixation (sequestration) done by plantation owners in the developing and underdeveloping nations to balance drastic climate change processes.

In mobilising plantation programmes for professional planters the Department of Forestry at OUAT has a bigger role to play in extending such facility for green entrepreneurs and industrial sectors, says Prof and HoD RK Pattnaik adding it can also play a key role in preparation of project design documents and carbon trading facility.

Carbon trading is a lucrative option in developing world as the biomass for carbon sequestration (fixation) can be sold or exchanged with good support price with polluting units of developed nations through prescribed UNFCCC guidelines.

“But with ratification of Kyoto pact at Bali UN Climate Change Conference, the upcoming or industrial units in Orissa should take maximum advantage and get the benefits in dollars, adds Prof Sahu.

There is also a need to develop a carbon trading centre under OUAT to provide extension services on carbon trading to the people, planters and industrial units of Orissa, feels Prof Pattnaik.