India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) is a market where companies that pollute less earn credits, and companies that pollute more must buy them. Farmers can sell credits too.
1. What is CCTS in one line?
It's India's official carbon market — launched in 2023 and run by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE). Cleaner companies get rewarded; polluting companies must pay. Farmers can also earn by growing carbon on their land.
2. How do you earn a credit?
The government gives each big polluting company a target — say, 'cut emissions by 5% this year'. Do better than the target and you earn Carbon Credit Certificates (CCCs). One CCC = one tonne of CO₂ avoided. Do worse and you must buy credits from someone who did better, or pay a fine.
3. Where do farmers fit in?
Farmers usually don't have emissions targets, but they can create carbon by planting trees, using cover crops, or storing carbon in their soil. These are called 'offset' credits. Aggregators like Ecarbify group thousands of farms together, get them audited, and sell the credits on their behalf.
4. Who benefits, and by how much?
Farmers typically get 60–75% of the credit revenue. Corporates get audit-safe credits they can defend to their board. India gets a market that moves money from polluters to nature-based sinks. Everyone wins if the credits are real.