A market for carbon credits

Global offset market has potential but also perils

It is good news that there is finally interest in policy circles in India in finding solutions to the problem of building a proper carbon credit trading system that can be accessed by India’s farmers. This newspaper has reported that the Indian Agricultural Research Institute is tying up with a private sector company to develop a carbon credit marketplace targeted at farmers. The theory behind such a marketplace is simple. Farmers gain tradeable carbon credits by demonstrating that they are taking action to sequester, or possibly reduce, their carbon footprint. These actions could range — again, theoretically — from planting