ANNOUNCEMENTS
India’s evolving carbon market—driven by voluntary frameworks and the newly introduced Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS)—offers growing opportunities to finance climate action. However, the complexity of technical methodologies, regulatory uncertainty, and high implementation costs continue to hinder access, particularly for small and community-scale projects. In this context, carbon market enablers—including consultants, project developers, policy advisors, and technical experts—have emerged as key intermediaries who bridge the gap between policy frameworks and project-level execution. This study investigates the institutional and operational roles of carbon market enablers in India, examining how they design, implement, and manage carbon offset projects under both voluntary and compliance regimes. It further explores the challenges these actors face in ensuring transparency, stakeholder engagement, and regulatory alignment. A mixed-methods research design was used, combining thematic analysis of open-ended survey responses with weighted ranking analysis across four dimensions: project feasibility, enabler capacities, stakeholder strategies, and transparency practices. Thirteen practitioners from across India contributed expert insights through a structured questionnaire. Findings indicate that Agriculture, Forestry, and Land Use (AFOLU) projects are viewed as the most practical and scalable, while methodological interpretation is ranked as the most essential capacity for enablers. Stakeholder trust-building through community consultations and participatory monitoring was consistently valued over passive documentation. Barriers such as high MRV costs, procedural delays, and buyer opacity were highlighted as critical challenges.
The study contributes to the literature by presenting a practitioner-led analysis of India’s carbon market infrastructure. It emphasizes the need for policy and registry reforms that recognize the operational realities faced by enablers. Key recommendations include simplifying methodologies, enhancing capacity-building for local enablers, and embedding participatory MRV frameworks to strengthen trust and credit integrity.
Keywords: carbon markets, climate finance, carbon project development, MRV, stakeholder engagement, India, AFOLU, transparency, CCTS.
