New Delhi: Under the so-called carbon market terms, British companies are handing over millions of pounds to an Indian chemical plant, so that they can continue to pump out thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gases.
As a result, SRF, the company which produces refrigeration gases at a sprawling chemical plant in Rajasthan, stands to make a profit of more than £300 million from the bizarre arrangement that is supposed to combat climate change, The Sunday Times, reported.
The deal that has angered environmentalists, is part of the carbon market where companies in developed countries pay those in developing nations to reduce their production of greenhouse gases.
By doing so, western companies can increase their own output of carbon dioxide in a trade-off, the report said.
For instance, if a firm has an emission cap of three tonne, but emits five tonne, it can meet the target cap by buying two Carbon Credits from the carbon market. Western companies, which are required to maintain a cap on emissions, buy credits.
In the rush to join the "green revolution" companies are investing millions of pounds in a select handful of United Nations-approved schemes around the world.
Among the investors in Indian plant are Shell and Barclays, it said.
The Indian company has spent about £1.4 million in equipment to reduce its emissions, but it will reap a profit of more than 200 times that amount from British investors and others.
It is now using the money it has made to expand production of another greenhouse gas, which is a thousand times more damaging than CO2.
Other manufacturers in India and China producing similar products are expected to earn an estimated £3.3 billion over the next six years by cutting emissions at a cost of just £67 million, it said.
Environmental campaigners and politicians on Saturday said they were "shocked" by the absurdity of the carbon economics.
As quoted by PTI, Mary Taylor, climate campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said, "It really is perverse. It allows western companies to continue polluting while handing over large amounts of money to a company in India, which itself produces large amounts of greenhouse gases."
Under the Kyoto Protocol, developed countries must cut all greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012. This had led to individual firms being given their own targets to restrain emissions.
Firms in the UK or elsewhere can take the expensive option of cutting their own emissions or instead invest in projects in the developing world that also cut pollution.
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