Thiruvananthapuram corporation to venture into ‘carbon credit trading’

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a significant step towards environmental sustainability, the Thiruvananthapuram city corporation is set to explore the concept of carbon credit trading. By participating in carbon credit trading, the civic body aims to reduce the city’s carbon footprint and promote sustainable development practices. A single carbon credit represents the removal or avoided emission of one tonne of carbon dioxide – or another greenhouse gas like methane of an equivalent volume.

This initiative will not only help reduce carbon emissions but also potentially generate revenue by trading carbon credits, said an official source. The civic body is gearing up to invite Expressions of Interest (EoI) for implementing the initiative in the state capital. The plan is to come up with innovative ideas to reduce carbon footprints in all possible sectors, including public transportation, construction, agriculture, waste management and more.

The decision to explore carbon credit trading comes in the wake of the civic body’s vision to achieve carbon-neutral status by 2035. “Indore is the only city which has adopted carbon credit trading. It’s a new concept and the Union government has also introduced such a policy. The Centre is also planning to open a carbon credit exchange within the country. The civic body has already undertaken many steps to achieve carbon neutral status. Implementing solar projects in public sector buildings was a major step,” said an official source.

The plan is to implement the initiative under public private partnership. “We are not planning to do any investment. Initially we will assess the volume of carbon emission in the project area and take efforts to bring down the carbon emission. A baseline emission assessment will be conducted. Then an independent body will validate and certify the eligibility for carbon credits,” said an official source.

Recently, the city corporation had signed an MoU with WRI to study and assess the amount of greenhouse emissions caused by the construction sector in its jurisdiction. The study is under way and the WRI will be coming up with recommendations to adopt eco-friendly construction practices.