CARBON MANAGEMENT - VIEW

IN ASIA

B ACKGROUND
Asia, comprising of pockets of highly developed countries such as South Korea,
Japan, developing giants such as China and India and a number of developing
countries such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka offers a very different view on carbon
accounting, footprinting and mitigation efforts as compared to the developed EU
and USA.

Huge investments are happening in Asia in field green technology, evidenced by

rankings in wind energy (China is 4th and India is rank 5th). Similar push is also
underway in Solar energy installations, India has rolled out ambitious Jawaharlal
Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) with a target of 20GW installed power from
solar by 2022. These could very well be the steps brightening prospects of domestic
emissions trading and regional carbon trading thereafter.

K YOTO OR N O K YOTO
Given the uncertainty around the Kyoto Protocol and its successor mechanism if
any, Asian countries such as China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea may
not wait for a follow up agreement and could proceed ahead with their own
national Cap –and Trade schemes to curb greenhouse gases.

Carbon is becoming a key driver in the competitiveness of businesses that want to

survive in the new carbon economy. European companies are already well aware of
this given the legislations and EU-ETS being in place. This has made sure that several
companies have already taken action. Given the way the Copenhagen negotiations
shaped up, in terms of attempts to create conditional targets, Japan and Korea
seems to be taking a wait-and–see approach. When the Japanese Cap and Trade
scheme will actually start is unclear as of yet. It could be in the fiscal year 2012 or
even later, one thing is for sure the Japanese companies need to start preparing
themselves. Evidence shows that who starts too late will lose very good
opportunities. South Korea is likely to launch a national Carbon Cap and Trade
system most likely in 2012. The big polluting companies that produced more than
125,000 tons of CO2 in the past 3 years will already have to start taking action from
April 2011.
C ARBON MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE
Carbon management is a framework for evaluating emission opportunity and risk. It
is a tool to assess risk, mitigate liability, and develop new revenue streams.
Accounting for emissions, identifying reduction opportunities, and then tracking
actual emission reductions will become common business practice for many
companies in the years to come.

Irrespective of how the legislations and global negotiations proceed, the top
companies in these geographies have already started integrating carbon
management into their every day operations, allowing them to identify and control
liability and in some cases realize income from emission reductions.

The reason for delay by many companies in acting on carbon management systems
is the gross underestimation of the timeline of Boardroom idea to actual
implementation. Companies that take early action can turn emission reductions
into a positive by increasing income through carbon credits. Businesses that wait
too long will suffer, as their emission reductions will show up only on the cost side
of the ledger.

The opportunities and risks exist across the sizes and geographies of companies, all
medium to large Asian corporations should start setting up a carbon management
system right now.

S OURCES
1. http://www.maycroft.com/cms/pages/posts/carbon-management-for-
japanese-and-korean-companies-be-
prepared39.php?goback=.nmp_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1.amf_115719_4262858.gde_1
15719_member_32476294
2. Agneya’s analysis
A BOUT US
Agneya Carbon Ventures came into existence with the purpose of “To help our
clients in understanding, establishing sound Environment Management Systems,
and pursuing sustainable business solutions through our various services to abate
direct and indirect impact on ecological balance.”

We have worked with companies across sectors enabling them to create carbon
accounting, monitoring and reporting systems. We have expertise in the areas of
carbon accounting and management, energy management systems,
voluntary/compliance carbon markets, environment management and sustainability
and carbon branding.

To know more about us, please visit http://www.agenya.in

To schedule a meeting or a discussion with us, do reach us on

Kedar - +91-9665407848 – kedar@agneya.in

Indrajeet - +91-9028788430 – indrajeet@agneya.in