The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has earned Rs 195 million from the sale of 3.55 million carbon credits that it accumulated over a six-year period from 2012 to 2018 in its quest for increased energy efficiency. DMRC has a number of projects aimed at increasing energy efficiency to its credit. Since 2015, Delhi Metro has also provided CDM consultancy services to other Indian metro systems, allowing them to collect carbon credits from their projects.
Gujarat Metro, Mumbai Metro, and Chennai Metro, among others, have already registered their projects under the Delhi Metro’s Program of Activities (PoA), allowing them to earn carbon credits and contribute to India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) in accordance with the Paris agreement. In 2007, Delhi Metro became the world’s first metro or railway project to be recognised by the UN under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), allowing it to claim carbon credits for its Regenerative Braking Project.
The CDM is a project-based greenhouse gas (GHG) offset mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol that allows the public and private sectors in high-income countries to purchase carbon credits from greenhouse gas emissions-reduction projects in low or middle-income nations as part of their efforts to meet international Kyoto Protocol emissions targets. As per the reports, CDM projects create emissions credits known as Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), which can subsequently be purchased and sold. One CER equals one tonne of carbon dioxide emission reduction. The CDM contributes to the host country’s long-term development.