NEW DELHI: India has constituted a 21-member National Designated Authority, headed by the Union environment secretary, for implementation of provisions related to carbon trading and other market-based mechanisms, to achieve its climate targets under the Paris Agreement on climate change.As part of its 19-core functions, the authority — constituted by the environment ministry on Aug 22 — will recommend to the Union govt a list of activities that can be considered for trading emission reduction units from various projects.Maintaining a registry of approved projects and their emission reductions through an administrator of the Indian Carbon Market will be one of the key responsibilities of the authority.So far, 113 countries including the UK, France, China, Germany and Brazil have constituted such national authorities and formally communicated the same to the UN climate body. The US, which formally withdrew from the Paris Agreement once President Donald Trump took over, is not on the list.India’s 21-member authority has representatives of different ministries, including external affairs, finance, power, science & technology, steel, civil aviation, petroleum & natural gas, agriculture and renewable energy. The authority will replace the previous such body that was notified in May 2022. Its work will broadly be related to greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation and carbon removal activities, which are eligible for trading international carbon credits under bilateral or cooperative approaches.Carbon credit trading through market and non-market mechanisms is covered under Article 6, and its different subsections, of the Paris Agreement.The ministry’s notification on the National Designated Authority said it will fulfill the country’s responsibility in terms of achieving “sustainable development and environment integrity by evaluating, approving and authorising projects under Article 6 mechanisms” of the Paris Agreement.
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