Monetizing India's Carbon Footprint - An Analysis of the New Emissions Trading Measures

Abstract

There are many contributing factors to climate change and global warming in India, but by far the biggest and most visible is that of Air Pollution. According to a report by IQ Air, 6 of the top 10 most polluted cities (2017 -2022) are from India, whilst 40 of the top 50 most polluted cities are also in India.1 These alarming figures and their many adverse consequences for India’s health and environment have prompted the Central and State governments to take all possible measures to resolve the issue. Of these, the most popular and controversial is the implementation of a policy and set up of a market-based Emissions Trading system. Through this paper, I will conduct a comparative study of the policy and its practical implementation in India, in comparison to similar policies and systems already in place in the European Union (EU), United Kingdom (UK), and Canada.

Keywords: Emissions Trading, India, taxes, European Union, Canada