Bengal projects yet to file for carbon credits

Despite having huge potential in CDM projects be it waste management, composting, land fills projects, the state of West Bengal is lagging behind many of the other states in India in execution of clean development mechanism (CDM) projects due to lack of awareness and government apathy.

Speaking on the sidelines of a seminar on Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) organised by Indian Chamber of Commerce, Subrata Ray, associate director-risk advisory services, Ernst & Young (E&Y), said, “We are yet to see that kind of enthusiasm in West Bengal as seen in states like Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Bihar where lots of such CDM projects are happening and getting registered.”

According to Ray, E&Y met secretaries of the state in various departments in June 2008 and had suggested some possible areas where CDM projects could be executed in the state, but nothing happened thereafter.

Ray mentioned that Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in the country could take up projects like composting, energy projects, management of waste water or hospital waste projects, transportation projects which can harness CDM benefits.

For example, the municipal corporation of Patna already started projects and municipal bodies of Pune, Coimbatore and Thane were doing much along similar lines to avail CDM benefits. Chhattisgarh adopted a biodiesel blending project for state transport system, along the same line as Bangalore Bus Rapid Transport System which had started biodiesel blending two years back. Orissa brought in the conglomeration of various urban bodies together and have started to work on various CDM projects like multi parking system and intercity causeways.

Little had happened in Bengal on these lines though the secretaries of various department had shown interest earlier.

CDM projects happening in the state were filed by private entities like CESC and ITC.

Greater government intervention is needed, said Ray

E&Y said the state government could take up projects like like waste biomass utilisation in energy generation, composting projects, landfill projects and transportation projects for CDM benefits, he added.

E&Y had 156 projects in India CDM registered.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) was associated with half a dozen CDM projects in the country in states like Kerala, Uttaranchal and Bihar but none in Bengal. Vinay Deodhar, clean energy & CDM specialist of ADB, said “Unless we have a concrete proposal from the government we cannot intervene but at present ADB has no CDM projects in West Bengal.” CDM projects in developing countries helping in House Gas emission reduction were of interest to entities in developed countries which invest in these projects to get the Carbon Emission Reduction Certificates or CERs, which had guaranteed returns and could be traded. India at present had around 232 registered CDM projects worth around 39 million CERs.

Globally there are 1078 registered CDM projects worth around 149 million CERs. After 2012, there would be 1261 projects approved worth around 1.37 billion CERs while another 4200 projects were in pipeline pending approval globally.