Minister of State for Environment and Forests Shrimati Jayanthi Natarajan said the executive board of the UN's Clean Development Mechanism has considered to indefinitely hold the issuance of Certified Emission Reduction credits to Indian projects that eliminate HFC-23 and disapprove any future projects until the methodology on how the projects earn the credits is revised.
There are five registered projects in India to earn C.E.R. credits from capturing and destroying HFC-23, a by-product resulting from the production of the refrigerant gas HCFC-22. The C.E.R. credits can be sold on the carbon market for profit.
"India considers such steps to be violative of the rights and obligations of parties under the Kyoto Protocol and has lodged formal protest with the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat," Mr. Natarajan said in a statement.
The environment minister said the decision has been taken after C.D.M. Watch, a non-government organization which aims to oversee the C.D.M program, pushed to make revisions on the methodology.
Seeking a proper investigation into the carbon credits earned, one of the revisions the C.D.M. Watch recommended was to change how carbon credits from HFC-23 are calculated. Read the full report here.
Source: by Oliver M. Bayani, Eco Seed.
