Declining prices of carbon credits along with the lower probability of Annex 1 or developed countries agreeing to binding commitments after the expiry of first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 may hit the revenues of companies like SRF, ONGC, Navin Fluorine and Chemplast Sanmar, among others, which have registered their projects for the UN's clean development mechanism (CDM).

With prices of carbon permits having declined to a record low of 70 cents per unit, down from the peak of 17 euros, Indian firms — which sell about 90% of their total credits to Europe — might feel the tremors in the next few months.

Agreeing to a second commitment period without meaningful rules is pointless. Emission cuts must be ambitious

The U.N.

European Union governments will probably reduce emissions outside the bloc’s carbon market by 8.8 per cent more than required under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, according to projections published today

A red-faced Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has now instituted an inquiry into IL&FS Environment’s over-estimation of carbon credits that the scientifically-closed Gorai dumping ground could produce. In three years till June 2012, IL&FS had estimated that the solid waste management project at Gorai would generate 3,00,235 CER (Certified Emission Reduction) units, but only 14,477 units were received.

CERs are units issued by the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Executive Board for emission reduction and can be traded in the international market. In 2009, based on IL&FS estimates, the BMC took an advance payment of Rs 24.5 crore from Asian Development Bank (ADB) to sell 4.3 lakh CER units over a five-year period.

The first phase of the Kyoto Protocol's (KP) emissions offset market is drawing to a close with just over 13 billion giga tons (Gt) of surplus of emissions offset credits, more than a thousand time