{"id":40389,"date":"2025-10-27T06:55:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T01:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=40389"},"modified":"2025-10-30T15:06:02","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T09:36:02","slug":"green-credit-programme-gcp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/green-credit-programme-gcp\/","title":{"rendered":"12 greening projects approved under the Green Credit Program (GCP)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in News?<\/li>\n<li>What is Green Credit Programme (GCP)?<\/li>\n<li>Implementation of the GCP<\/li>\n<li>Greening projects approved under GCP<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in News?<\/h2>\n<p>The Centre has approved 12 greening projects under the Green Credit Program (GCP) and estimates of 24 plans submitted by different state forest departments are under consideration.<\/p>\n<p>This program, introduced last year, is a market-based mechanism. It aims to encourage voluntary environmental actions across various sectors.<\/p>\n<h2>What is Green Credit Programme (GCP)?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Background<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Green Credit Initiative was launched by the Indian PM on the side-lines of <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/cop28-final-outcome\/\" target=\"_blank\">COP 28<\/a> (held in 2023 at Expo City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates).\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>It is an initiative within the government&#8217;s<strong> Lifestyle for Environment <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-the-life-mission\/\" target=\"_blank\">(LiFE) movement<\/a>.\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>The concept of LiFE was introduced by the Indian PM at COP26 (Glasgow) in 2021, to drive an international mass movement towards \u201c<strong>mindful and deliberate utilisation<\/strong>\u201d to protect and preserve the environment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>About<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The GCP introduces a market-based approach<\/strong> to incentivise 8 identified environmental activities.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The main objective was to establish a mechanism where <strong>participants could earn incentives in the form of \u2018Green Credits\u2019.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It encourages voluntary environmental actions by individuals, organizations, and companies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Aim<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The GCP aims to promote sustainable lifestyles and environmental conservation.<\/li>\n<li>Its goal is to lay an emphasis on sustainability, reduce waste and improve the natural environment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Objectives<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>To enhance India\u2019s forest and tree cover.<\/li>\n<li>To Build an inventory of degraded land under the control and management of Forest Departments suitable for plantation.<\/li>\n<li>To encourage participation of individuals and entities in pro-planet actions by rewarding Green Credits.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Implementing agency<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) is responsible for administering the GCP.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sectors targeted\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The proposed GCP will be implemented in phases, with the <strong>initial phase<\/strong> focusing on <strong>water management and afforestation<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Subsequent phases<\/strong> will cover activities such as\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>Sustainable agriculture,\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Waste management,\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Air pollution reduction,\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Mangrove conservation and restoration,<\/li>\n<li>Eco mark label development, and\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Sustainable building and infrastructure.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Compensatory Afforestation and GCP<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The GCP allows for the exchange of credits to meet compensatory afforestation (CA) requirements.\n<ul>\n<li>Under CA, industries and government agencies are legally mandated to plant trees on non-forest land equal to the size of forests they cut down.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Implementation of the GCP:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Individuals and companies can apply<\/strong> to the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) &#8211; an autonomous body of the MoEFCC, <strong>to pay to restore these forests<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>The actual afforestation will be carried out by State Forest departments.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Two years after planting and following an evaluation by the ICFRE, each such planted tree could be worth <strong>one \u2018green credit.\u2019<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>These credits can be claimed by the financing organisation and <strong>used in two ways:\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Either using it to comply with existing forest laws<\/strong> that require organisations, which divert forest land for non-forestry purposes, to recompense by providing an equivalent amount of land elsewhere.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Or be used <strong>for reporting<\/strong> under environmental, social and governance leadership norms or to meet corporate social responsibility requirements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Greening projects approved under GCP<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Approval to 12 projects while 24 others are under consideration\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Centre has approved 12 greening projects under the GCP.<\/li>\n<li>Estimates of 24 plans submitted by different state forest departments are under consideration.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>PSUs being pushed to take a lead<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The government has been pushing the public-sector undertakings (PSUs) to take a lead in registering for the programme, especially in mining heavy states.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Guidelines for third-party verification<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The govt is developing guidelines for third-party verification of projects under the scheme.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Implementation so far<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>So far, forest departments of 13 States have offered 387 land parcels of degraded forest land &#8211; worth nearly 10,983 hectares.\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>Those interested in undertaking plantations have to first register on a government portal and the state departments then identify plots.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>A plantation plan and cost estimate are submitted to ICFRE, which clears final proposal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Initial focus is on states such as Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, where large forested areas have been diverted for mining.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q.1. What is Compensatory afforestation (CA)?<\/h3>\n<p>Compensatory afforestation (CA) is the process of replacing forest land that has been diverted for non-forest purposes with an equivalent area of non-forest land. The Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980 requires CA when forest land is diverted for residential, commercial, mining, or industrial purposes.<\/p>\n<h3>Q.2. What is the lifestyle for environment model?<\/h3>\n<p>This initiative encourages a lifestyle that focuses on mindful and deliberate utilization of resources and aims to change the present &#8216;use and dispose of&#8217; consumption habits. The idea behind is to encourage individuals to adopt simple changes in their daily life that can contribute to climate change.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/green-credits-nod-projects-consideration-9339617\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Green credits: Govt nod to 12 projects, 24 under consideration<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.moefcc-gcp.in\/about\/aboutGCP?utm_campaign=fullarticle&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=inshorts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MOEFCC<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/pib.gov.in\/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1967476\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">PIB<\/a> | <a href=\"about:blank\" target=\"_blank\">The Hindu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The GCP introduces a market-based approach to incentivise 8 identified environmental activities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":40390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-40389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}