NEWS

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Council on Climate Change on Aug 24, 2009 approved “in principle” the National Mission on Efficiency which the PM said will enable about Rs 75,000 crore worth of transactions in energy efficiency In a press release, the PMO said the mission, by 2015, will help save about 5% of annual energy consumption and nearly 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. The mission is the second of eight missions under India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change to be approved by the Council. The National Solar Mission was approved earlier this month. The implementation of this mission will also be a powerful signal to the international community that we are willing to contribute in a significant manner to meet the global challenge of climate change.” The mission introduces a “perform, achieve and trade” (PAT) mechanism which would assign energy efficiency improvement targets to the country’s most energy-intensive industrial units and provides for Energy Savings Certificates, called ESCerts. Units will also be allowed to use purchased ESCerts to meet their targets.