Clean power is a must in today’s climate stressed world. Therefore, there is a clear need to strengthen the policy mechanisms to incentivize cleaner power and bring in deterrence mechanisms to check non-implementation. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), after a thorough research of concepts, proposes a strategy called ‘First-run’ which incentivizes the running of cleaner power stations on priority basis and penalizes the laggards. When rolled-out, this can encourage power stations that are making sincere efforts to meet the 2015 environmental norms.