State signs pact to launch use of emissions trading scheme

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 5

In order to address the problem of growing industrial air pollution in Punjab, the Industry and Commerce and the Science, Technology and Environment Departments on World Environment Day announced partnership with Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) South Asia and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC India) to launch the use of an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). The state government would work with J-PAL South Asia and EPIC India to design and establish pollution markets in Punjab. The partnership includes providing technical assistance and capacity building to public officials to effectively use data and research evidence from established and functioning emissions trading market at Surat.

As a first step in this partnership, the state government and the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) would also launch an ETS to regulate emissions from 200 dyeing industries in Ludhiana besides reducing particulate and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the state.

Elaborating about the partnership, Principal Secretary Industries and Commerce Alok Shekhar said, “The state government is keen to combat environmental pollution through regulation that promises a win-win situation of cleaner production, coupled with lower compliance costs for industries. The ETS is one such initiative that can help regulate critically and severely polluted industrial belts in Punjab.”

In his address, Prof Michael Greenstone, the Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, Director of EPICand Co-Chair of Energy, Environment and Climate Change of J-PAL, said, “Pollution reductions can be delivered – the world’s first ETS for particulate pollution in Gujarat has already shown this.”