BETAIndia CCTS — Guide 2026
The Carbon Credit Trading Scheme is India's compliance carbon market. If your plant is named as an obligated entity, you must meet an emission-intensity target. This guide explains what that means and what to prepare, and points you to the notified texts for dates and penalties.
What is the CCTS?
India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) was notified by the Ministry of Power on 28 June 2023 (S.O. 2825(E)) under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001, as amended in 2022. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) administers the scheme; the notification also sets up the registry and the trading arrangements regulated by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC).
Under its compliance mechanism, each obligated entity receives a greenhouse gas emission intensity (GEI) target — permitted emissions per unit of product. Entities that beat their target are issued Carbon Credit Certificates (CCCs) they can sell; entities that miss it must surrender CCCs to cover the shortfall.
The scheme also has an offset mechanism, under which non-obligated entities can register projects that reduce or remove emissions and receive CCCs.
Who is obligated?
Obligated entities are plants in energy-intensive sectors, drawn from the Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme, that are named in a Gazette notification setting their emission-intensity targets. Targets are notified sector by sector, so coverage grows over time — check the latest notification for your sector.
Energy-intensive sectors from the PAT scheme
- Aluminium
- Cement
- Chlor-alkali
- Pulp & paper
- Iron & steel
- Fertilisers
- Petroleum refining
- Petrochemicals
- Textiles
Whether a sector has targets for a given year, and which plants are named, is set by the target notifications.
How the compliance cycle works
Each compliance year follows the same sequence: monitor emissions and output, verify, submit, and settle your position in certificates.
Check whether you are an obligated entity
Obligated entities are named in the Gazette notifications that set emission-intensity targets, sector by sector. Check the notification for your sector and look for your plant; BEE also publishes the lists.
Understand your emission-intensity target
Each obligated entity receives a greenhouse gas emission intensity (GEI) target: tonnes of CO₂e per unit of equivalent product, for each year of the target period. Your achieved GEI is your verified emissions divided by your output for that year.
Set up your GHG monitoring
Track every emission source in the boundary set by BEE's procedure: fuel combustion, process emissions (for example limestone calcination in cement), purchased electricity and other sources. Use the emission factors the procedure specifies.
Get third-party verification
Emission data is verified by a verification agency accredited under the scheme before it is submitted. Plan it with the timelines in BEE's procedure for the compliance year.
Submit and settle your compliance position
After verification, your compliance position is determined: an entity that beats its target is issued Carbon Credit Certificates (CCCs); an entity that misses it surrenders CCCs to cover the shortfall.
Trade certificates if needed
CCCs are traded on power exchanges regulated by CERC. MintCarb shows a CCC price only when one has been published, with its source and date — it does not estimate prices, and no live exchange feed is connected yet.
If you do not comply
Shortfall: an obligated entity that misses its target must surrender certificates to cover it. Failing to do so attracts the consequences set in the target notification for your sector.
Penalties: the Energy Conservation Act, 2001, as amended by the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022, sets the penalties for failing to comply with its provisions. Read the current text of the Act and your sector's notification for the amounts that apply to you — MintCarb does not quote them here.
Disclosure: listed companies report energy and emissions in their Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR), so the CCTS position should be consistent with it.
Sources
- Carbon Credit Trading Scheme, 2023
Ministry of Power, Gazette notification S.O. 2825(E), 28 June 2023 — establishes the scheme, BEE as administrator and the registry and trading arrangements.
- Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022
Amends the Energy Conservation Act, 2001: empowers the Central Government to specify a carbon credit trading scheme and revises the Act's penalty provisions.
- Emission-intensity target notifications
Sector-wise greenhouse gas emission intensity targets for obligated entities, notified in the Gazette of India — they set which sectors and entities are covered and for which years.
- BEE detailed procedures for the compliance mechanism
Bureau of Energy Efficiency — monitoring, reporting, verification and the timelines for each compliance year.
Gazette notifications are published at egazette.gov.in; BEE publishes CCTS documents on beeindia.gov.in.
How MintCarb helps
MintCarb keeps the data behind your CCTS position in one place, from facility emission records to the certificates you hold.
Scope 1, 2 and 3 calculations from your facility records, with the emission factor and its source shown for every line.
Your emission intensity against the target you enter for each plant and year, with the gap in tonnes.
Evidence attached to each data point, organised for your verifier's review.
Record the CCCs and other credits you hold and surrender, lot by lot, alongside your compliance position.
Track the dates from the notifications for your entity, with reminders before they fall due.
The same emission and energy figures feed your BRSR disclosures — no double entry.
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