A 25-30-year environmental insurance and third party monitoring of projects could be one way to mitigate the threat to bio-diversity, a senior Environment Ministry official has said.

However, mitigation alone, regardless of who takes the initiative, cannot tackle climate change challenges, said T. Chatterjee, Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), at the two-day India Carbon Market Conclave that began here on Wednesday.

At the global level, it is adaptation that holds the key to fighting climate change, he said. However, he reiterated that it was difficult for emerging countries such as India to commit to a low-carbon regime as they had a huge population that was poor.

Chatterjee urged the foreign and Indian companies to invest in research & development in adaptation technology, especially in the field of agriculture. He said it was important that such technology was home-grown and tailored to local conditions.

Later, addressing another session, Kirit Parikh, Chairman, Expert Group on Low Carbon Growth, said there was need for a well-functioning global carbon market.

Referring to the Bachat Lamp Yojana scheme launched in 2009 (replacing incandescent bulbs with CFL ones), he said the programme had come to a halt as the carbon credit market had plunged, as also there were very few takers for the scheme among discoms. Nevertheless, the scheme did generate awareness about energy saving, he added.

The conclave, organised by industry chamber FICCI in partnership with World Bank, also saw the release of a knowledge report ‘Climathon: from Durban to Doha’.

>aditi.n@thehindu.co.in

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