Carbon credits earned from replacing inefficient incandescent light bulbs with Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) in Kerala a little over 10 years ago are now up for sale.
Power Department agency Energy Management Centre (EMC) has put up for sale 8,49,704 carbon credits earned through Bachat Lamp Yojana (BLY), a CFL lighting scheme implemented during 2010-11 in collaboration with the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB).
EMC is the State-designated agency for energy conservation initiatives in Kerala.
EMC had been putting off the sale hoping for better prices in the international market, EMC director R. Harikumar said. The agency had decided to go for it as more delays would render them useless.
Under BLY, the EMC and KSEB had distributed 1.26 crore CFLs to grid-connected households in the State. According to the EMC, the same number of incandescent bulbs were removed from the grid, bringing down consumption and ensuring a reduction in CO2e emissions into the atmosphere.
The project was undertaken as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)-based CFL programme by registering with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) under the title ‘CFL lighting scheme – Bachat Lamp Yojana.’ Subsequently, UNFCCC had issued 8,67,045 carbon credits (monitoring period: May 30 2010-December 31, 2021).
A carbon credit is a tradable unit equivalent to one tonne of CO2. CO2e refers to ‘Carbon Dioxide Equivalent’ and includes CO2 as well as other greenhouse gases.
CDM allows emission-reduction projects to earn certified emission reduction (CER) credits which can be bought and used by industrialised countries to meet part of their emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
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