NEW DELHI: Raj Kumar Singh, the Union Minister for Energy Conservation from New Delhi, will introduce the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 on Monday in the Rajya Sabha to amend the Energy Conservation Act, 2001 and provide the central government the authority to design a carbon credit trading system.

The Energy Conservation Act of 2001 Amendment Bill was already approved by the Lok Sabha in August. The Energy Conservation Act, 2001 was also amended in 2010 to address various new factors that emerged with the energy market's development over time and to provide for more efficient and effective use of energy and its conservation.

In addition to creating carbon markets, the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 "seeks to mandate use of non-fossil sources, including green hydrogen, green ammonia, biomass and ethanol for energy and feedstock."
It aims to alter penalty provisions, expand the Energy Conservation Building Code application, and include big residential buildings within the scope of the Energy Conservation regime.

The measure also aims to expand the membership of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency's Governing Council and provide the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions the authority to create rules to ensure the efficient performance of its duties.

As per Bill draught of a bill, certain users may be obliged to obtain a certain amount of their energy from non-fossil sources. Office and residential buildings with connected loads of 100 kW or more are also subject to the building energy conservation code. For ships and vehicles, energy consumption standards can be defined.

Carbon credit trading aims to cut carbon emissions and address climate change. The question is whether the Ministry of Power is suitable to regulate this scheme. A further question is whether the market regulator for carbon credit trading should be specified in the Act.

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