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World’s first Emissions Trading Scheme to begin live trading from 15th September in Gujarat

Sep 11th, 2019 8:23 pm | By | Category: LATEST NEWS

Dr. R K Gupta, IAS
(THE NEWSMAN OF INDIA.COM)
Kevadia:The Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) in collaboration with The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (JPAL), the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), launched the live trading for pilot Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) for Particulate Matter at a workshop organized at Ekta Auditorium at Kevadia, near Statue of Unity, on the 11th September.

The ETS program in Gujarat is the first of its kind in the world.The grand pre-launch event was held at the Kevadia colony in the presence of Dr. Rajiv Kumar Gupta IAS, Additional Chief Secretary of Forest and Environment, Government of Gujarat and the Chairman, Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) and H. K Dharamdarshiji IA&AS, Principal Accountant General. Leading academicians and global experts, Professor Michael Greenstone, the Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at University of Chicago and Dr.Anant Sudarshan from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) were key speakers at the workshop that was attended by over 600 participants including, prominent industrialists and Industries Associations of Gujarat from Surat, Ankaleshwar, Vapi, Vadodara, Amdavad etc.

Dr. R K Gupta, IAS

Dr. R K Gupta, IAS


The Emissions Trading Scheme was formally launched on 5th June, World Environment Day, by the Chief Minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani. Over the last 3 months, all the participant industries have carried out a mock trading to understand the modalities of the scheme. This event marks the launch of the live trading among the 170 industries from 16th September. The Emissions Trading Scheme is an innovative instrument for pollution regulation that has the potential to transform the trade-off between environmental quality and growth, improving air quality through a mechanism that is transparent, predictable and with lower costs of compliance to industry. In addition, the use of continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS) can enable the use of better targeted regulatory restrictions and greatly improve the information and ability of regulators to monitor industry. “Under the visionary leadership of Honorable Prime Minister and the able guidance of Chief Minister, GPCB has been committed to effective and efficient pollution control, using data and technology to improve environmental regulation”, says Dr. Rajiv Kumar Gupta IAS, Chairman of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB). “The ETS initiative will help us understand the potential that reduced emissions will have on compliance and regulatory costs.”

Lauding the efforts of the GPCB team, Prof. Michael Greenstone, who has served as Chief Economic Advisor in the Obama Administration, says: “The goal of this market is to show that emission targets can be used to reduce compliance costs, increase industry profits and achieve environmental
standards.”Under the ETS, the overall amount of pollution allowed from regulated industries is capped. Plants can decide for themselves how to allocate the total permissible emissions among themselves by buying and selling ‘emission permits’. Plants for whom it is cheap to cut pollution have an incentive to make large reductions, while selling permits to other factories for whom it might be very expensive to reduce emissions. This flexibility can dramatically reduce costs without affecting environmental goals.ETS of Gujarat is one of the multi-dimensional initiatives undertaken by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to tackle climate change. A firm resolve that he has reiterated, about India’s cultural and spiritual relationship with land and the earth as a whole, at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). With its success and replication in Gujarat and other States, Surat ETS piloted by GPCB has the potential to reduce air pollution considerably.

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