53 industries participate in CDM projects

With the awareness about the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) growing in the state, more and more companies are participating in the CDM related activities in Orissa. While only 5 companies participated in CDM programmes in 2008, this has increased to 53 at present.

Out of the 53 companies participating in the CDM programme, 13 have already received Certified Emission Reduction (CER).This includes Tata Sponge Iron Ltd, Orissa Sponge Iron Ltd and JK Papers.

However, there is potential for 200 companies in various sectors to participate in the CDM related activities in the state, Ashok K Singha, national expert, UNIDO said.

Addressing a national workshop on CDM and clean production, organised by state owned investment promotion agency Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa Ltd. (Ipicol) and UNIDO, Singha said, the CDM programme was integrated with the Industrial Policy Resolution (IPR) of the Orissa government one year back.

A nodal officer has been identified to interface with the industry on issues pertaining to CDM. For the first time in the country, a collaborative programme of activity for iron and steel sector to reduce emission and adverse impact of the climate change has been taken up.

This is being promoted jointly by Ipicol and Orissa Sponge Iron Manufacturing Association (OSIMA).This programme is expected to reduce emission by 8 million tonne carbon di-oxide from 20 industries operating in the state.

Industry secretary Saurav Garg said, India is more susceptible to the climate change though our per capita emission is about one twentieth of the per capita emission of the developed countries. Improved technology may be adopted for mitigating the impact of climate change which can partly be funded through CDM mechanism. Virinder Sharma, expert, DFID, said, the vulnerability to change will have to be addressed. Since the poor people will be more vulnerable, DFID will support any measure by the Orissa government to take CDM projects forward in mitigating the impact of climate change. It will strengthen partnership with the Orissa government to institutionalise the climate change action plan strategy.

Suresh Chandra Patnaik, chairman-managing director (CMD), Ipicol said, the CDM mechanism has created a dynamic carbom market. The national workshop will help to enhance the capacity building of the industries in the state.

Industry minister Raghunath Mohanty said, the industries need to adhere to stringent environmental specification wherever required. He advised the industries to adopt latest technologies in their production process.

Hemant Sharma, director, industries said, as part of the IPR Technical Assistance programme, UNIDO is providing assistance for CDM component and CTRAN has been appointed as the consultant to take the process forward. B N Palai, GM (outreach and promotion) of Ipicol, co-ordinated the event.