Green credits earned by individuals & industries will be tradable via a proposed market platform. Notification comes 2 months after environment ministry readied the scheme’s draft contours.
New Delhi : The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) Tuesday notified the draft ‘Green Credit Programme (GCP)’ implementation rules 2023.
Under this, individuals, industries, farmers producers organisations (FPOs), urban local bodies (ULB), gram panchayats and private sectors, among a host of other entities, will be able to earn “green credit” for undertaking environment-friendly actions. These include planting trees, conserving water, waste management and reducing air pollution.
The programme aims to create a market-based mechanism for these entities to earn incentives in the form of green credits. The idea, environment ministry officials told ThePrint, is to “incentivise voluntary environmental actions”.
The green credits will be tradable and those earning it will be able to put these credits up for sale on a proposed domestic market platform.
Speaking to ThePrint, Union environment secretary Leena Nandan said that the draft notification will be out on public domain for 60 days for inviting objection and suggestion after which the rules will be notified.
The notification of draft rules comes almost five months after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcement in the 2023-24 budget and around two months after the MoEFCC readied the draft contours for rolling out the GCP.