Cement, Energy and Environment

they need legal protection to save wetlands not listed. COMMENTS: CARETAKERS AND FACILITATORS Today, the government controls all wetlands in the country. The involvement of society is almost minimal. The government ought to become a facilitator, while society should become caretaker of wetlands. Significant decisions pertaining to the conservation and welfare of wetlands should be initiated by the end-users of water bodies. Their suggestions should provide guidelines for decision-makers in higher levels of government. I fear the wetlands rules are a subterfuge to regularize encroachments on shrunken wetlands. The rules do consider "overall well being of the people". But I believe this should be rephrased to "overall improvement of ecosystem" to preclude encroachments and construction activities on wetlands. For the same reason, the section "expedient in · the public interest" should be rephrased with "expedient in the environmental interest". Courtesy: Down to Earth, March 16-31 , 2011, P58. Pollution Control MARKET-FRIENDLY POLLUTION CONTROL SYSTEM LAUNCHED Pilot project to cover 1,000 industries in 3 states New Delhi The Environment Ministry has launched a market- friendly emission trading system. The market-based mechanism is expected to reduce cost of compliance, make regulatory environment more predictable and investment and growth. raise It will have a system of self regulation among industrial units by putting a price on emission of pollutants . There will be a two-year pilot emission trading scheme, at an estimated cost of Rs. 360 crore, which will cover 1,000 industries, near metro areas in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Environment Minister Jairar:n Ramesh said this initiative would "convince market walahs" that the Environment Ministry is not anti-market or anti-industry. "We are interested in the growth of industry, but this has to happen in an environment friend ly manner," Ramesh said. Given that a market-based system will reduce the costs compliance, it will be easier in the long-run to introduce new regulations that increases environmental quality. It will therefore, pave the way for "stricter and more robust" environmental regulations without constraining industrial growth. "So, we had to find a way of regulating without regulators. I look upon today's initiative as a first step that India is taking to enforce environmental regulations in a market-friendly manner." The em1ss1on trading system puts a price fo·r emissions, making it costly to pollute, therefore incentivising polluters to reduce emissions. This marks a shift from the command control system, where state pollution control boards determined the emission levels of individual units. In the market-based system, where a price is set on emissions, the regulator or state pollution control board sets an overall limit for emissions of different pollutants and industrial units self-regulate to ensure that these limits are not breached. Broadly, the state pollution control board will set a limit on the amount of categories of air pollutants that can be emitted on the basis of its desired concentration in the atmosphere. The state regulator then allocates through permits "acceptable" level of emissions to industrial units. The industrial units can trade this right to emit, so units which exceed the set level will have to buy permits from those who manage to restrain emissions to below the cap. Pollution emissions will be measured in real time using continuous emissions monitoring. This will help in lowering pollution levels at lower overall costs of compliance. This effort found full support of Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. "This is as an innovative star" in the area of emission control, a path we will have to tread in the 20 years. While India will continue to maintain its international position of not taking or any quantified emission cuts, it will signal to the world that domestically India is not sitting back." A strong pro-market voice, Ahluwalia has often been critical of Ramesh's environmental protection efforts as the measures are understood to stymie growth. Besides the appeal for industry, the trading system will help address health concerns. Pollution concentrations in countries like India is at levels that exceed the highest concentration recorded in 24 _ .....