India publishes first draft project design document under carbon credit offset scheme

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency has published the first draft project design document for the Kosher Biogas Program under India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme offset mechanism, inviting public comments, BEE Director Saurabh Diddi said in a social media post Feb. 9.

The Kosher Biogas Program, developed by the carbon advisory and sustainability consulting firm Kosher Climate India Private Ltd., is a carbon-reduction initiative focused on reducing methane emissions from manure management, particularly through household-level biogas plants in India.

Kosher Climate India Private Ltd. proposes installing about 1,000 household-scale, 2.5-cubic-meter biogas digesters in rural Karnataka to process livestock manure, displacing anaerobic pit storage and firewood cooking, the document said.

The project applies the BM AG04.001 methodology for methane recovery from livestock and small-farm manure management via controlled anaerobic digestion and biogas combustion, according to the document.

Annual CO2 reductions from the program are estimated at 5,059 mtCO2e/year, totaling 50,590 mtCO2e over a 10-year fixed crediting period starting March 31, 2026, with the first installations planned for March 2026, the document said.

Carbon rights vest with Kosher through end‑user agreements, even though households own the equipment, according to the document.

Stakeholders can submit comments through BEE's portal, as outlined in the detailed procedure for the CCTS offset mechanism, to ensure transparency, technical robustness and environmental integrity of the project, Diddi said.

India has been a traditional supplier of voluntary carbon market credits, particularly from renewable energy projects, and has recently begun supplying tech-based removal credits such as industrial biochar.

The country's national carbon market is expected to begin trading in the first half of 2027, after the government notified emissions intensity targets for eight sectors, Abhay Bakre, mission director at the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, said Jan. 29.

Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, assessed the renewable energy carbon credit price at 55 cents/mtCO2e on Feb. 9 and the industrial biochar India price at $130/mtCO2e.