Will the Centre’s first-of-its-kind Green Credit Programme Implementation Rules 2023 be a winner or a greenwash?

Will the Centre’s first-of-its-kind Green Credit Programme Implementation Rules 2023 be a winner or a greenwash?

Subject: Schemes

Section: Environment

Green Credit Programme Rules 2023:

• Proposed by: The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change in the 2023-24 budget.
• It is a first-of-a-kind instrument that seeks to incentivise individuals, industries and local bodies to earn from environmentally positive actions.
• Green Credit is an incentive that individuals, farmer-producer organisations (FPO), industries, rural and urban local bodies, among other stakeholders, will be able to earn for environment-positive actions.
• A green credit is a singular unit of a credit provided for a specified activity undertaken.
• The draft rules identify eight sectors for these activities:
  • Tree plantation; Water; Sustainable agriculture; Waste management; Air pollution reduction; Mangrove conservation and restoration; ECO Mark (a government scheme to identify environment-friendly products); and Sustainable building and infrastructure.
• Apart from incentivising individual/community behaviour, the Green Credit Programme will encourage private sector industries and companies as well as other entities to meet their existing obligations, stemming from other legal frameworks, by taking actions which are able to converge with activities relevant to generating or buying green credits.
• The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education shall be the administrator of the programme.
  • The institute will develop guidelines, processes and procedures for the implementation of the programme and develop methodologies and standards, registration process and associated measurement, reporting and verification mechanisms.
• The green credits will be tradable and those earning it will be able to put these credits up for sale on a proposed domestic market platform.

Concern include:

• Greenwashing
• Maintenance and monitoring challenges
• Fraud in utility of resources