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Planning to start a carbon market, the Union Cabinet agreed on amending the Energy Conservation Act, 2001, to push some of the major polluting industries to adopt a clean-up programme.
The amendment will give permission to cement, steel and aluminum industries to purchase energy-saving certificate from the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE). These can be traded in the local market.
This is the stepping stone on the way to launch a carbon market in India. While taking part in a climate change debate in the Lok Sabha in the beginning of this month, Jairam Ramesh, the Union environment minister, pledged that the amendment will be introduced soon to emphasize India’s commitment to cut its carbon intensity.
The government declared that it would cut carbon intensity by 20-25% from the 2005 standards by 2020.
The decision of the cabinet has been sounded only hours before the departure of Mr. Ramesh for the UN climate meet at Copenhagen. The high-end meeting of the ministers and heads of states will start on December 16.
Amendment of the ECA and the updated forest cover report of India reflecting 21% coverage of the land mass of India with the growth of valuable forest will be the 2 major points in the Indian argument for expressing its commitment and power to tackle the issues of climate change.
More importantly, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao gave a call to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to talk about the issues pertaining to the Copenhagen summit. India and China are facing massive pressure from the rich nations for showing firm commitments to reduce carbon emissions.
Both the nations along with South Africa and Brazil have come up with a proposal called BASIC draft as against the Danish proposal that wants developing economies to go for stringent steps.
The Cabinet also agreed on launching a powerful steering committee for the National Ganga River Basin Authority to be chaired by the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to step up measures to clean the holy river.
The clean-up projects for Ganga costing less than Rs 150 crore will be given a clearance by the committee instead of waiting for the Cabinet’s approval. Another panel will be headed by the Union environment secretary to supervise the implementation procedure of the project.
Deccan Herald
December 10, 2009
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