Utilise green credit plan to fight pollution

Operationalising green credits for air pollution reduction can mobilise private capital, complement regulatory enforcement, and deliver measurable benefits

- SHASHANK PANDEY

THE NATIONAL CAPITAL is facing one of its worst pollution crises, with the air quality index consistently exceeding 450 and remaining in the "severe-plus" category across most areas.

The crisis has triggered the highest level of emergency response under Graded Response Action Plan IV, prompted the Supreme Court to advise hybrid hearings and work-from-home arrangements, and renewed calls for bipartisan parliamentary debates on solutions.

Delhi's predicament is far from unique. Thirteen of the world's 20 most polluted cities are in India. Although the National Clean Air Programme aims to reduce particulate pollution by 40% by 2026, progress has been uneven. Inadequate financing for industrial emission control has been a major constraint, as well as the limited engagement of private capital.

A potential solution exists in a policy form but remains underutilised. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) notified the Green Credit Programme (GCP) on October 12, 2023, under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Its objective is to promote environmentally beneficial actions through market-based incentives. Air pollution reduction is one of the seven sectors eligible for generating green credits. But operational guidelines have so far been issued only for tree plantation, an area that has attracted criticism for unscientific methodologies, ecological risks, and conflicts with tribal and forest rights. The plantation guidelines, notified in February 2024, had to be revisited within months.