Affidavits in SC flag ‘two-fold’ damage to natural forests

Affidavits filed in the Supreme Court flagged concerns over a two-fold destruction of the country’s natural forests if forest lands are used for compensatory afforestation as prescribed by the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Rules 2023, HT reported. Experts and former forest officials filed a status report after the top court on February 3 directed that the government refrain from taking steps that lead to reduction of forests “unless compensatory land is provided” for afforestation,” the newspaper reported. 

“The analysis of the minutes of the FAC meeting clearly show that degraded notified forest lands and unclassed forest lands are continued to be offered for compensatory afforestation,” the petitioners said. 

The petitioners were referring to the minutes of FAC meetings held after the February 3 order, which showed that 603.8314 ha of forest land was approved for diversion, of which 140.7977 ha is in unclassed forests and 2.2567 ha in degraded forests, the outlet explained. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the petition against the validity of the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act 2023 once the courts reopen after summer vacation. 

Govt notifies draft carbon rules for industries

The Centre released emission targets for 2025-26 and 2026-27 for a range of industries under the carbon trading market and suggested that the carbon market will become operational during the period, reported HT.  The targets have been issued for three companies in aluminium; 253 in the iron and steel sector; 21 in petroleum refining; 11 in petrochemicals; 11 naphtha ; and 173 spinning/textile units which have registered under the scheme.

The draft notification also stated that the obligated entity (company) shall achieve the GEI targets in the respective compliance year as per the schedule provided in the draft notification, the newspaper noted. They can meet their GEI target for the respective compliance year by purchasing carbon credits certificates from the Indian carbon market, in case they do not achieve the prescribed GEI target, the outlet said. The GEI targets will be calculated by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE).

Nine projects in India produced ‘problematic’ carbon credits in 2024, says report

An analysis of the global voluntary carbon market found that millions of carbon credits retired in 2024 were unlikely to result in additional emissions reductions, Mongabay reported. Nine out of the 47 largest projects that produced “problematic credits” were located in India, the report, released by the civil society organisation Corporate Accountability, found.

Citing the report, the outlet reported that over 47.7 million carbon credits in 2024 were “problematic,” meaning they are unlikely to deliver real emission reductions. The outlet noted that many of these projects were found to lack additionality — particularly large-scale solar, wind, and hydropower projects that would have happened anyway due to policy incentives.

Nine renewable energy projects from India feature in the report’s list.

No independent member in key environment panel: Experts

The Constitutional Conduct Group—a panel of former civil servants set up following Supreme Court orders—has written to the court raising concerns that the Central Empowered Committee on environmental matters is functioning without any independent members.

Citing the panel, HT reported that the outcome of a petition on the Forest Conservation Amendment Act 2023 “may possibly be compromised considering the conflict of interest” of the CEC. The panel claimed this in a letter to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India. “In 2023, since Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) seemingly had complete autonomy in choosing the members of the CEC, it nominated in all the four posts of members, four former government officers, three of whom are retired Indian Forest Service officers and one, a retired scientist, who had also worked for many years until his retirement in the MoEFCC. There are no independent experts.”

Forest advisory committee: Take steps to fast-track, streamline forest clearances

To fast-track clearances, the forest advisory committee (FAC) recommended dropping multiple enquiries for essential details, not insisting on hard copies of project details, and reviewing pendency of forest clearance applications every fortnight, HT reported.

Forest and environmental clearance are mandatory for any major industry or infrastructure project that is coming up in or near forest land. FAC, a statutory body under the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) has also decided that some proposals need not be referred to it or regional empowered committees (RECs).  These include proposals involving: a change in the name of the user due to inheritance by legal heir; change in name of company, etc; transfer of approval from one user to another such as transfer of mining leases; change in some of the patches of compensatory afforestation (CA) sites due to unforeseen reasons; delay in submission of compliance of in-principle approval conditions after the stipulated period when this is done with valid and cogent reasons for the delay, the outlet noted.

FAC stressed that the authorities, while processing proposals, need to adhere to the timelines as provided in the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Rules, 2023. The nodal officer, along with the concerned divisional forest officers in the state/UTs may review the pendency of proposals on a fortnightly basis to process and dispose of the case within the prescribed time lines, it said.

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