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Roadmap for Voluntary Carbon Markets

unwiredcp2021-10-20T07:03:49+00:00

The demand for carbon credits could increase by a factor of 15 or more by 2030 and by a factor of up to 100 by 2050. Overall, the market for carbon credits could be worth upward of $50 billion in 2030 as estimated by recent report published by The McKinsey & Company

Overview

Post Paris agreement, many companies are pledging towards climate change by reducing their own greenhouse-gas emissions, yet many businesses are finding that they cannot fully eliminate their emissions, or even lessen them as quickly as they might like. For the companies committing to achieve net-zero emissions, which means removing as much greenhouse gas from the air as they put into it, use of carbon credits will be very important to offset emissions they can’t get rid of by other means.

India can acquire a major share of this opportunity and attract significant investment in voluntary carbon credit generation projects if the policy framework can be streamlined and a conducive operative environment can be created. Private investment flows in the carbon credit generation projects can not only help the country improve the local environment, but also put substantial money in the hands of Indian farmers, as the carbon capture opportunities in Indian agriculture are humongous.

NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution):

The Paris Agreement requires all ratifying Parties to communicate an NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution). NDCs are documents capturing the pledges made by each country, outlining their mitigation and adaptation goals, under the agreement.  The first India NDC for the period 2021 to 2030 focuses on three priority areas:

  • To reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33-35 percent by 2030 from 2005 level.
  • To achieve about 40 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030 with the help of transfer of technology and low-cost international finance including from Green Climate Fund (GCF).
  • To create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tons of CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.

Agriculture plays a vital role in India’s economy and about 49% of the working population depends on agriculture as their principal means of livelihood, (MoA&FW, 2016). Agriculture, along with fisheries and forestry, is a large contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). With agriculture being a major contributor to the GDP as well as GHG emissions, this indicates that India might claim emission reductions or removals created in an agriculture project for accounting under its NDC target.

The issue of Double Counting:

Double claiming may occur when two different parties claim the same emission reduction / removal / mitigation outcome. In the context of the Paris Agreement, this can occur when


https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability/our-insights/a-blueprint-for-scaling-voluntary-carbon-markets-to-meet-the-climate-challenge#

a project’s host government claims the outcome towards its NDC and at the same time another country (for their own NDC) or an entity for a specific carbon reduction project claims it.

If the government of country from its national inventory does not exclude the benefits created by a specific carbon sequestration projects, this represents a double claiming situation. Carbon standards such as Gold Standard require a statement/clarification from the government proving such an adjustment. Due to environmental integrity, all carbon standards are very sensitive concerning this. The host country can forgo a claim to the emission reduction/removal outcome from a voluntary market project by applying a corresponding adjustment to the reporting of its progress towards achievement of its NDC, such that the level of effort required to meet its targets remains unaffected.

In India, The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is the responsible entity for the post 2020 climate regime and is the key national climate change focal point working on preparing and submitting national communication reports including the NDC to UNFCCC and meeting its Convention obligations. MoEF has formed an Apex Committee for Implementation of Paris Agreement (AIPA) that shall exercise and perform the function as a National Authority to regulate carbon markets in India, under Article 6.2, Article 6.4 and Article 6.8 of the Paris Agreement.

While smallholder agriculture is NOT included in the current INCD, in the absence of a clear guidance on the carbon accounting, especially on the double counting, the private and international investment in carbon capture projects may slow down.

Objectives

  • A clear guidance on the voluntary carbon markets in India that allows the private and international investors to claim ownership on the carbon credits generated through their investee projects focusing on smallholder agricultural projects.
  • A system to issue NOC by government of India, for GHG emission reductions and/or removals from the privately funded projects from national inventory/NDC target.
  • To develop a clear roadmap for sustainable voluntary carbon markets in India specifically around smallholder agriculture.

Expected Outputs

  • Framework suggested for enhancing private sector investments and making carbon farming profitable and globally competitive
  • Mechanisms for efficient use of carbon credits for agricultural development related activities
  • Strategy/action plan prepared as a Road Map for strengthening public-private partnership to address carbon farming smallholder problems and for enhancing their income

Speakers

Dr. Anshuman
Associate Director, Water Resources Division
TERI
Moderator

Dr. Anshuman Associate Director, Water Resources Division, TERI

Mr. Anshuman, Associate Director, Water Resources Division of TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) has been working in the field of water sector since last 24 years. His key qualifications include M. Tech. in energy & environmental management from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), N. Delhi.

His expertise in the water sector lies in the areas related to integrated water resource management, water use efficiency, water quality & quantity assessments where he has carried out several comprehensive research studies in context of the source (surface water, groundwater), issues (water scarcity, pollution, use efficiency etc.), sectors (irrigation, domestic & industrial) and stakeholders (Central/state Governments and local communities). His focus work areas include integrated water resources management (IWRM); Water use efficiency; Urban water supply & demand management studies; Water audits; Water conservation; Watershed management; Climate change and water security; Provision of drinking water, Resource evaluation and pollution load assessment; Adequacy & efficiency studies of sewage & effluent treatment plants; Training and capacity building in water & environmental management; Regulatory legislations, Environmental impact assessment (EIA) studies etc.

He has been member of several advisory committees earlier and currently is Member of CSIR Monitoring Committee for review of progress of FTT/FTC projects under Ecology, Environment, Earth & Ocean Sciences and Water (E3OW), Member of CSIR Committee for Evaluation of Indo-German Projects; Member of BIS Water Quality for Industrial Purposes Sectional Committee, CHD 13; Jury Member, Water Digest Water Awards, Organised by Water Digest and UNESCO; Member of Committee for National Water Mission Awards 2021; Member of the ‘Technical Advisory Committee (TAC)’ for SVAGRIHA V3 rating; Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of National Institute of Hydrology (NIH) (Under Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India); Member of Sectional Committee for Water Quality for Industrial Purposes under the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

He has executed several related projects, presented several papers at national and international fora and has several relevant national & international publications.

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Dr. Bjoern Ole Sander
Senior Climate Change Scientist
IRRI

Dr. Bjoern Ole Sander, Senior Climate Change Scientist, IRRI

Ole is a Senior Scientist and IRRI’s climate change focal point. His research group focuses on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigation technologies. He currently leads IRRI’s country office in Vietnam. Ole completed his PhD at the University of Kiel in 2008. In 2010, he joined IRRI as a Collaborative Research Scientist with Dr. Reiner Wassmann.

As climate change specialist, Ole analyses the GHG balance of different cropping systems. He evaluates different mitigation options through water, fertilizer, and crop residue management. In his inter-disciplinary research, Ole also identifies suitable bio-physical but also socio-economic conditions to support dissemination of mitigation technologies. A particularly focus is a water-saving method known as Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) which offers huge potential in reducing methane emissions.

Ole’s expertise in agricultural environment and multi-stakeholder engagement further supports the implementation of IRRI’s agenda throughout the field of climate change research and climate-smart technologies. Throughout his years with IRRI, Ole has continually worked with various stakeholders in countries within the region to foster the implementation of climate-smart farming practices.

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R.P. Gupta
IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change
Government of India

R.P. Gupta, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Government of India

Shri R. P. Gupta is an IAS Officer of 1987 Batch of Gujarat cadre. He did B. Tech. from IIT, Kanpur in Aeronautical Engineering.

Working Experience at Centre

He has taken over charge as Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on 1st June 2020.  Prior to this, he was in NITI Aayog as Special Secretary and Additional Secretary, dealing with the subjects of Energy, Transport, Health, Education and Rural & Urban Development, from 2017 onwards till May 2020.  Earlier, he had worked as Joint Secretary in Ministry of Coal from 2015 to 2017.

In Cadre

In cadre, he had rich experience by virtue of his working in various departments – to narrate a few, he had worked as

  • Principal Secretary (Appeals) in Department of Revenue
  • Principal Secretary in Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs
  • Commissioner & Principal Secretary in Panchayat & Rural Development
  • Principal Secretary in Education Department
  • Settlement Commissioner (Land Reforms)
  • Special Commissioner, Sale Tax Department
  • MD, Gujarat Agro Industries
  • Collector, Kutch
  • Additional Secretary in Forests and Environment Department, etc.

Main Emphasis

Besides all these and also apart from working in the field assignments in earlier part of his career as District Development Officer, Municipal Commissioner, District Collector etc., he had mainly worked in the field of education, land record and energy at the policy making levels. In every field, the focus was on streamlining the system and introduction of modern technology to make the system more people friendly and responsive to their needs.

In the area of land records, digitization of village maps and land parcels and synchronizing them with satellite imagery along with geo-stationery tagging was done. Resurvey of State of Gujarat using modern technology was also started during this time.

In the field of education, he introduced completely transparent computerized system of teachers’ recruitment enabling the State to recruit tens of thousands of teachers purely on merit in a short period of one month. His other contribution was in conceptualizing and implementing an annual assessment of quality of education in about 35000 Government schools in the state of Gujarat in digitized format to compare schools, tehsils and districts across the State but also enabling improvement or deterioration over time and assessing teachers’ performance.  While working as Secretary, Department of Food and Civil Supplies dealing with the Public Distribution System (PDS), apart from fully computerizing the PDS right from Fair Price Shop to State Government level, he had ensured that a system of biometric authentication was implemented to eliminate the leakages. In this capacity he also dealt with LPG and Kerosene distribution through PDS as cooking and lighting fuel.

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Usha Barwale Zehr
Executive Director
GrowIndigo

Usha Barwale Zehr, Executive Director, GrowIndigo

Name :   Usha Barwale Zehr

Title &Organization : Executive Director in Grow Indigo Private Limited

Director and Chief Technology Officer in Mahyco Private Limited

Address : Jalna-Aurangabad Road,

Post Box # 76, Tq. Badnapur,

Dist. Jalna-431 202 (Maharashtra) India

Phone :   +91-02482-262001 / +919823157763

E-mail :   usha.zehr@growindigo.co.in

Educational Background:

1987    Ph.D.   (Agronomy)      University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1985    M.S.    (Agronomy)        University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1982    Diploma in clinical analysis     Sophia College, Bombay
1981    B.Sc. (Microbiology)    Wilson College, University of Bombay

Professional Positions:

  • Chairman and Executive Director, Grow Indigo Pvt.

Director and Chief Technology Officer in  Mahyco Pvt. Ltd.

2007-2012    Member, BOT, International Rice Res. Inst. (IRRI)
2007-2012   Member BOT, CIMMYT
2004-2007       Chair    Private Sector Committee of the CGIAR
2003-2018       Member    Various committees of the International

Seed Federation.

2000   Member of the Board      Donald Danforth Plant Science Centre, St. Louis, USA
2000   Whole-time Director    Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Co. Ltd., Jalna, India
1998    Trustee    Sankara Netralaya, Chennai, India
1997-2002       Member   Technical Advisory Committee
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
1997-2007       Trustee   M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai
1991-    Director    Barwale Foundation, Mumbai, India
1987-1990   Research Associate   University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1985-1987   Research Assistant (Ph.D.)    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1983-1985   Research Assistant (M.S.)     University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Simon-Thorsten Wiebusch
COO
Bayer South Asia

Simon-Thorsten Wiebusch, COO, Bayer South Asia

Simon is the Chief Operating Officer of the Crop Science Division of Bayer for India, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka. He has been in this role since August 21, 2018 and is based in Bayer’s South Asia headquarters in Mumbai, India.

Prior to this, Simon was the Chief Executive Officer for Bayer’s Crop Science Division in South East Asia, based in Bangkok, Thailand. Simon started his career with Bayer in 1998 based at the company’s headquarters at Germany. He built his professional experience by working across various functions such as Sales Support, Operations, Tender Management, Controlling and Strategy, within Germany, Eastern Europe and Asia.

With more than two decades of having worked in the field of agriculture, Simon is passionate about the fundamentals that are needed to produce sufficient food and improving agriculture. He is also a strong supporter of sustainable agriculture and believes that technology and digital farming tools can improve the quality of food, reduce efforts needed to farm, ensure traceability and help farmers earn better livelihoods.

Customer-focused and motivational, Simon’s key strengths include unlocking business growth, redefining distribution strategies, driving change management and building diverse teams that drive market share and create business value.

On the family front, Simon is married to wife, Tanja. They have two sons: Tyler, aged 15 and Nik, aged 12.

Follow Simon on LinkedIn.

Close

Dr. S. Bhaskar
Assistant Director General (ADG), Natural Resources Management (NRM) Division
ICAR

Dr. S. Bhaskar, Ph.D., ARS, FISA, Assistant Director General (ADG), Natural Resources Management (NRM) Division , ICAR

SCIENCE ADMINISTRATION

  • Assistant Director Generalsince February, 2016 (Equivalent rank of Joint Secretary in GOI and Principal Secretary in the States).
  • Member, BOM of University of Agricultural & Horticultural Sciences, Shivamogga (ICAR Nominee).
  • Member, Peer Review Team for accreditation of 2 SAUs and Private Agricultural University
  • Monitoring and Reviewing the progress of Flag Ship project in ICAR “National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture”
  • Monitoring and reviewing the performance of 8 National ICAR Research Institutes coming under Natural Resources Management Division.
  • Steering the agricultural research of 5 AICRPs and 1 net work program of national importance.
  • Member, Project Steering Committee of J&K for implementation of climate change project under Global Climate Fund.
  • Member, Research Advisory Committee of Tea Research Association, Assam
  • Member, selection committee of ASRB and SAUs for promotion and recruitment of scientific/ technical personnel.

PROFESSIONAL/RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

  • As Professor at UAS(B) Guided 10 Ph.D. and 6 M.Sc. (Agri.) students in Agronomy.
  • Implemented extramural projects (worth about 500 lakhs) and received Certificate of Merit and Cash Award as reward for implementing.
  • Developed technologies for utilization of wastewater generated from agro-based industries.
  • Taught several courses both at UG and PG level including Ph.D.
  • Published 90 research articles in peer reviewed journal besides 30 popular articles, 15 books and book chapters.
  • Presented research findings in the national and international seminar, symposia, conference and published over 50 abstracts/executive summaries.
  • Visited China, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Nepal and participated or presented research papers in international conferences and meetings.
  • Organized workshops, seminars, Krishi melas etc. as PI, office bearer of professional societies and ADG.
  • Developed instructional farming, rain water harvesting, hostel, class rooms and laboratories under DST FIST fund.

AWARDS AND HONOURS

  • ICAR Best Teacher Award (UASB, 2016)
  • ISA Fellow award (Indian Society of Agronomy, 2014)
  • Best Scientist Award (NESA, New Delhi, 2013)
  • State Award for distinction in M.Sc. (Govt. of Karnataka, 1986)
  • ICAR-ARS-1986 examination with distinction and served ICAR (8 ½ years)
  • Gold Medals (M. Sc. and Ph. D with 4.00/4,00 CGPA).
  • Paper setter for KPSC main and preliminary examinations.

Close

Dr. Shailja Vaidya Gupta
Senior Adviser, Ministry of Science and Technology
Government of India

Joe Phelan
Director
WBCSD India


Agenda

15:25 – 15:30

Opening Remarks by EMCEE

15:30 – 15:40

Keynote Address by R.P. Gupta, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Government of India

15:40 – 15.45

Special Address by Simon-Thorsten Wiebusch, COO, Bayer South Asia

15:45 – 16:30

Round Table Discussion

Key Discussion Points

  • Voluntary Carbon Markets in India
  • Double counting issue
  • Pathways for net zero carbon emissions
  • Public private partnerships
  • Use of carbon credits for agricultural development

Moderator: Dr. Anshuman, Associate Director, Water Resources Division, TERI

Speakers

  • Dr. Shailja Vaidya Gupta, Senior Adviser, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India
  • Usha Barwale Zehr, Executive Director, GrowIndigo
  • Dr. Bjoern Ole Sander, Senior Climate Change Scientis, IRRI
  • Simon-Thorston Wiebusch, COO, Bayer South Asia
  • Joe Phelan, Director, WBCSD India
  • Dr. S. Bhaskar, Assistant Director General (ADG), Natural Resources Management (NRM) Division, ICAR

16.35 – 16:40

Closing Remarks by EMCEE


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Contact Us

  • Address: Lotus Corporate Park, 19th floor – 1902 and 1901, G – Wing, Off Western Express Highway, Geetanjali Railway Colony, Laxmi Nagar, Goregaon (East), Mumbai – 400063
  • Email: etunwired@et-edge.com