Centre in final stages of notifying emissions trading scheme

Centre in final stages of notifying emissions trading scheme

After the passing of the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill last December, the Centre is now in the final stages of notifying an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) that would require polluting industries to achieve certain standards of energy efficiency and permit them to ‘trade’ these improvements. Sectors (for example, aluminium, cement, fertilizer) would be given energy efficiency targets and the companies that were able to exceed these targets would get ‘credits’ or certificates that they could bank or sell to companies that failed to meet the targets. 

Emissions trading schemes, as they are called, are deployed in the European Union and Korea. As a precursor to the Indian carbon markets, the Environment Ministry on February 17 listed a range of activities, called greenhouse gas mitigation activities, that would be eligible for trading carbon credits. These include solar thermal power, offshore wind, green hydrogen, compressed biogas and stored renewable energy.

An emissions trading market is different from traditional “carbon credits”, an older scheme, whereby Indian industries installed systems to generate power from renewable energy sources instead of coal, oil and gas and claimed credits that reflected the emissions that were notionally prevented. These credits were sold to exchanges in the European Union where companies were required to offset their emissions with such credits. Many companies undertake voluntary offsets to reflect their embrace of clean technology and bank, as well as trade them. Carbon credits, in theory, reflect actual prevented emissions and energy certificates from ETS-like schemes reflect investments by industry in complying with government regulations on curbing emissions. (The Hindu, Times of India)

Punjab Cabinet nod to water tourism policy

In a ground-breaking move to boost the tourism sector in the state, the Punjab government unveiled the Punjab Water Tourism Policy 2023 recently. The launch underscores the commitment of the state to further growth in the tourism sector and provide employment opportunities to the people of Punjab.

The policy invites ideas and proposals from the private sector to develop tourist sites along the water bodies. It provides a mechanism to grant rights to the usage of these water bodies for enhancing the tourism potential of these projects. The ideas and proposals will be placed before an empowered committee, headed by the Chief Minister, which will clear projects based on their potential for attracting tourism. (The Tribune, Hindustan Times, Punjab News Express)

Odisha focuses on crop diversification and value addition in its agriculture budget

Recently, Rs 24,829 Crores agriculture budget has been tabled In Odisha. The strategy for crop production management in the state embodies smooth procurement and distribution of agriculture inputs (seeds, fertilisers and pesticides) of desired quality and making them available at farmers’ doorstep in adequate quantities, timely and at affordable prices. Further, Rs 306 crore has been proposed under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) to ensure the holistic development of agriculture and allied sectors in the State.

An allocation of Rs 52 crore has been proposed to support Farmers’ Producers Organisations (FPOs) in the production, aggregation, storage, processing, distribution, and marketing of agriculture and allied sector resources for sustainable development.

Horticulture is one of the key drivers for economic development which provides income support to the farmers and improve their nutritional security. Rs 381 crore has been proposed under Horticulture Development Programme to stimulate an array of activities for the promotion of horticultural crops and holistic growth of the horticulture sector. Similarly, Rs 121 crore is proposed under the National Horticulture Mission for the integrated development of horticulture.

Soil health management has assumed greater importance due to intensive agriculture practices. Organic farming is being constantly pursued under the aegis of state organic farming policy and it is aimed to cover around 2 lakh hectares during the next five years under organic farming.

Jalanidhi scheme has been remodelled as the “Soura Jalanidhi” programme to harness renewable sources of energy, especially in power inaccessible areas. During 2023-24, it is proposed to bring more area under assured irrigation and for this purpose, Rs 250 crore has been proposed under the scheme. Apart from that it is proposed to provide Rs 45 crore under state incentives for micro irrigation. (Odisha Bytes, Ommcom News)

New policy to help Indian communities displaced by the annual river and coastal erosion drafted

India’s first national policy for the mitigation and rehabilitation of the people affected by the river and coastal erosion has been drafted recently. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs had directed NDMA to draft a policy based on the 15th Finance Commission’s report (2021). Until now, most policies in the country only address displacement after sudden rapid-onset disasters such as floods and cyclones. It put in place some institutional mechanisms to manage displacement, which can be enacted under the Disaster Management Act 2005.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) received the final inputs on the draft of India’s first national policy for the mitigation and rehabilitation of the people affected by the river and coastal erosion.

• Mapping coastal and river erosion impacts and coming up with a database of diverse challenges confronted by the affected and vulnerable habitations.
• District disaster management authorities (DDMA) would be the nodal agency to implement the measures, aided by other district agencies and a specific panchayat-level committee.
• The DDMA will prepare mitigation and rehabilitation plans → SDMAs → NDMA → the home ministry will approve the disbursal of funds.
• A qualified disaster management professional must be included in all teams.
• Projects under NDRF and NDMF should be sanctioned in such a manner that they can be completed within the award period of the Commission.

(Down to Earth)

Ministry of Power issues guidelines for pumped hydro energy storage

Recognising that pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) could be a key foundation technology for India’s renewable energy ambitions, the government Ministry of Power has issued guidelines for its adoption. Pumped hydro can be deployed at a large scale as a key aspect of India’s transition to increased shares of renewable energy and is a domestically available, proven and safe technology, the Ministry of Power wrote in its guidelines, published last week.

With the country shifting to deploy 450GW of new solar PV and wind capacity by 2030 under its policy targets – and around a third of the way there today – PHES could supply long-duration energy storage (LDES) to India’s grid network, the ministry said. However, the new guidelines aim to create the framework needed to promote the development of new pumped storage facilities across the country and align the efforts of the Union government with those of the Indian states.

Despite the fast rise of lithium-ion BESS in the last decade or so, more than 95% of the world’s installed energy storage capacity to date is still PHES, which has been around for more than a century. Roughly 9,000GWh of PHES is in operation today, the Ministry of Power said.

PHES can help solve that problem at scale, and help grid operators and utilities manage their peak load as well as deliver daily energy requirements, charging up with cheap renewable and/or off-peak energy and discharging to the grid when demand rises.

Among the new draft guidelines are provisions for creating competitive bidding processes for PHES procurements, rules developers should follow once awarded state or central government projects, and costs for building new projects should be benchmarked at 6-hour to 8-hour durations.

Some tax benefits will also be considered, while suitable sites that leverage existing sites like disused mines would be preferable. Perhaps one of the most important among the many other provisions in the guidelines is that PHES projects will be eligible for concessional climate financing, including through government green bonds.

(Energy Storage News)

This is a roundup of important policy matters from February 16 - February 28, 2023.