The new money is carbon credits
BookMyCrop
Oct 17, 2022
Although carbon credit trading in agriculture is a new industry in India, it can offer farmers a different source of income. The farmers could then use this to claim carbon credits for a variety of actions including not burning paddy straw, not plowing the ground, and laser leveling the ground. However, what precisely are carbon credits, and where did the idea originate?
Let's examine that!
According to the UNFCCC, when a nation caps or places a limit on its greenhouse gas emissions, it immediately produces something of value. The ability to emit is that something in carbon farming. The unused right to emit, calculated as the CO2 equivalent, belongs to a nation (or business) that cuts emissions below its designated limit (in tones). Now, nations (or businesses) that fall short of their goals can purchase these units to make up the difference.
Carbon credits are therefore like points given to an entity to prevent an emission or remove a specific amount of CO2 from the atmosphere; one credit is given for every tone of CO2 that is reduced. The organizations that have saved these credits can profit by selling them. And those who purchase the credits (the government, Google, and Apple, among others) are the ones who pay the price for releasing CO2 or failing to sequester it.
As part of the 1997 UN Kyoto Protocol, the first global agreement to reduce CO2 emissions, trading in carbon credits was introduced. Through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), industrialized nations were able to cut emissions in places where doing so could be less expensive than at home, including by planting trees in tropical regions.
Conclusion
It benefits both the environment and the millions of smallholder farmers in India who use carbon credits. Offering farmers carbon credits has helped convince thousands of them to stop burning their crops, which in India causes massive volumes of carbon emissions and weeks-long haze in the cities.
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