The Indian Government is introducing Green Credits to develop a broad movement around positive environmental activities and actualize “Mission LiFE” through pro-planet people and entities to meet India’s net zero objectives in 2070. The Green Credits Programme rewards voluntary environmental activities by individuals, business sectors, small-scale firms, cooperatives, forestry enterprises, and farmer-produce organizations. The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has also notified the draft “Green Credit Programme (GCP)” implementation rules for 2023.
The national initiative will create a competitive market for Green Credits and incentivize stakeholders’ voluntary environmental actions. The notification states that, in addition to incentivizing individual/community behavior, the Green Credit Programme will encourage private sector industries, companies, and other entities to meet their existing obligations under other legal frameworks by taking actions that can converge with Green Credit-generating or buying activities.
The Government has identified sectors to begin implementing the Green Credit Programme, including increasing the country’s green cover through tree planting, promoting water conservation, water harvesting, and water use efficiency/savings, including wastewater treatment and reuse, promoting natural and regenerative agricultural practices and land restoration to improve productivity, soil health, and food nutritional value,
The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change’s notification states that an environmental activity that generates Green Credits under the Green Credit Programme may also receive Carbon Credits under the carbon market if it reduces or eliminates carbon emissions.
For each Green Credit activity, thresholds and standards will be set. To maintain fungibility across sectors, any Green Credit activity’s environmental outcome will be based on the equivalence of resource requirement, parity of scale, scope, size, and other relevant parameters and considered for allocation of one unit of Green Credit. The Programme’s digital operations will include self-assessments of eligible Green Credit activities, registration, issuing Green Credits, performance monitoring, and others.
