Explained: How Surat’s Emissions Trading Scheme Works to Reduce Air Pollution
New Delhi: Last week, China, the world’s top greenhouse gas emitter, announced it was opening a national carbon market, a type of emissions trading system. Under the system, industrial units that cannot meet annual government-set greenhouse gas emissions targets will have to purchase surplus targets from units that met theirs.
A pilot emissions trading scheme (ETS) for particulate matter pollution implemented in Surat, Gujarat in September 2019–the world’s first such programme–works similarly. Industries participating in the pilot scheme reduced their particulate matter pollution by 24% (with an 8% margin of error), compared to industries that continued to be under the business-as-usual regulation of complying with ambient air quality standards, an initial analysis of the effectiveness of the scheme has projected.