Platform will enable income generation and climate resilient development by leveraging carbon credits through high-quality sequestration projects in India.
Intellecap and Transform Rural India Foundation (TRIF) announced the launch of a national carbon finance platform that will help Indian smallholder farmers leverage climate/carbon finance for sustainable agro-forestry, climate smart agriculture and other activities that can result in carbon sequestration and mitigation. The platform brings together more than one million smallholder farmers who will be provided support and training for climate smart agriculture and agro-forestry.
The newly launched platform will play a key role in empowering smallholder farmers by:
Generating awareness on different types of carbon projects (e.g., agroforestry, clean cooking, waste management etc.) and their benefits
Enhancing technical capacity to design and implement high-quality carbon projects at scale
Supporting monetizing of carbon assets and pre-financing of projects
Establishing rules on fair practices for carbon benefit sharing
Improving resilience of vulnerable communities to climate change through improved watershed, cooler microclimate, soil erosion prevention, and enhanced biodiversity
The platform will be registering different type of carbon offset projects in which smallholder farmers would be able to participate and benefit from the monetization of the carbon credits that will be generated under an independent carbon crediting mechanism in the voluntary carbon market. The global voluntary carbon market is expected to be worth $200 billion by 2050. The platform is already in discussion with Indian and global corporates who are keen to participate and support smallholder farmers by purchasing carbon credits from these projects.
Speaking on the launch of this platform, Anish Kumar, Co-Lead, Transforming Rural India Foundation said, “At TRIF we are excited about launching this platform which will provide fair pricing while ensuring an increase in income of smallholder farmers and vulnerable communities as well as supporting India achieve its net zero goals sustainably. While climate finance and carbon finance are becoming a major source of financing climate action for enterprises and big corporates, smallholder farmers struggle to get access to climate finance for the projects that are not only producing climate outcomes but also creating jobs and building resilience of the local communities. This platform aims to be the guide and champion of these smallholder farmers for climate/ carbon finance.”
Santosh K. Singh, Managing Director- Agri and Climate, Intellecap said, “We are committed to increasing smallholder farmers’ income and transitioning them to climate smart agriculture. Climate finance, specifically carbon finance provides a great opportunity for these farmers to undertake climate action projects, which would not be possible in absence of carbon finance. The platform also helps corporates and other stakeholders who are committed to net zero goals and looking to offset their residual carbon footprints from projects which not only give then carbon emission reduction but also empower and benefit local communities”.
