UPSC Mains 2014 GS Paper 3 Q13: model answer
Should the pursuit of carbon credits and clean development mechanisms set up under UNFCCC be maintained even though there has been a massive slide in the value of a carbon credit? Discuss with respect to India’s energy needs for economic growth.
What the question wants
Discuss whether India should keep pursuing carbon credits and CDM despite their collapse in value, keeping its energy needs for growth in mind.
How to structure it
What happened, why continue, India's needs.
- CDM and CERs
- The price collapse
- Arguments to continue
- Arguments against
- India's interest
- What it became
How to think it through
Kyoto CDM: projects in developing countries earn CERs sold to developed countries. India was second-largest host. Prices fell from ~€20 (2008) to under €1 (2012–13) due to EU ETS oversupply, recession, no post-2012 demand. Continue: low-cost finance and tech, renewable projects, market-readiness, Paris Article 6. Against: little revenue, transaction costs, offsets let rich countries avoid cuts. Now: Article 6.4 mechanism (PACM) at COP29; India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme 2023 under Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act 2022; Green Credit Programme.
Model answer
India was the second-largest host of CDM projects in the world after China, earning credits for wind farms, efficient boilers and biomass plants. Then, around 2012, the price of a Certified Emission Reduction fell from about €20 to under €1. The question is whether a collapsed market is still worth keeping.
What went wrong
- Oversupply of credits in the EU's carbon market.
- Recession in Europe cut demand.
- No clear deal for after the first Kyoto period (2012).
Why India should continue
- Low-cost climate finance and technology for clean projects.
- Co-benefits: cleaner air and local jobs from the same projects.
- Market readiness: Indian firms learned monitoring and verification.
- Energy needs: India must grow energy supply, and credits can make renewable projects viable.
- Future value: carbon markets were bound to return under a new climate deal.
Arguments against
- Revenue had vanished; transaction costs remained.
- Offsets let rich countries avoid cutting their own emissions.
- Some projects were of doubtful additionality.
How it turned out
- The Paris Agreement's Article 6 created a new market; its rules were finalised at COP29 (2024).
- India launched its own Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (2023) under the amended Energy Conservation Act, 2022.
- A Green Credit Programme rewards actions like tree planting.
India was right to stay in the market: what looked like a dead asset in 2014 became the base of its own carbon market a decade later.
Draw: A falling line of CER prices from 2008 to 2013, with the Paris Article 6 arrow rising after.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
Kyoto Protocol, CDM, CER, India second-largest host, price crash under €1, EU ETS oversupply, additionality, Article 6, COP29, CCTS 2023, Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act 2022, Green Credit Programme.
Where most answers lose marks
- Ignoring India's energy needs, which the question links explicitly.
Related Mains PYQs
- Discuss in detail photochemical smog emphasizing its formation, effects, and mitigation. Explain the 1999 Gothenburg Protocol. UPSC 2022 · GS-III
- Discuss global warming and mention its effects on the global climate. Explain the control measures to bring down the level of greenhouse… UPSC 2022 · GS-III
- Explain the purpose of the Green Grid Initiative launched at World Leaders Summit of the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow… UPSC 2021 · GS-III
- Describe the key points of the revised Global Air Quality Guidelines (AQGs) recently released by the World Health Organisation (WHO). How are… UPSC 2021 · GS-III
Fresh examples from current affairs
Bleached corals revived in the lab: two studies on algae transfer and heat-tolerant symbionts
Between 2023 and 2025, about 80% of the world’s coral reefs, including India’s around Lakshadweep, faced extreme heat stress in the fourth global mass bleaching event. Now two lab studies show that bleached corals can recover, either by touching healthy corals of the same genetic stock or by receiving a lab-made heat-tolerant algae. Scientists call it a foundation for future recovery work, not a cure. For you, it is the right time to revise coral biology, India’s reefs and the threats they face.
UPSC angle: Prelims: zooxanthellae, Cnidaria, Indian reef sites, Biorock. · Mains GS-I/III: global warming and coral ecosystems.
25 Oct 2026
₹1.04 crore of access and benefit-sharing money from crops shared with 27 States and 2 UTs
When companies use India’s plants and crops for research or business, the law says they must share some of the benefit with those who conserve them. The National Biodiversity Authority has now given about ₹1.04 crore, paid by three seed and crop companies, to the biodiversity boards of 27 States and two Union Territories. Because the crops came through markets, it shared the money by each State’s crop area. For you, this links the Biological Diversity Act, the Nagoya Protocol and the Kunming–Montreal Framework.
UPSC angle: Prelims: Biological Diversity Act, NBA, BMCs, Nagoya vs Cartagena, GEF. · Mains GS-III: biodiversity conservation; farmers’ rights.
25 Oct 2026
North India is drying: IMD–IITM study on shifting climate zones and the Pacific ‘Victoria Mode’
A study by scientists of the India Meteorological Department and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology says India’s climate zones are shifting. In northwest India, the hot, semi-arid ‘steppe’ zone grew from about a quarter of the area to a third between 1951–80 and 1991–2020. The authors link the drying of the northern plains to a North Pacific pattern called the Victoria Mode. For you, this is a fresh way to revise the Köppen classification and the desertification debate.
UPSC angle: Prelims: Köppen types, steppe vs savannah, Victoria Mode. · Mains GS-I: desertification; climate change and agriculture.
25 Oct 2026
Carbon capture: how India can make its ₹20,000 crore CCUS push count, in three phases
Union Budget 2026 set aside ₹20,000 crore over five years for carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS). An expert piece in the Indian Express (23 October 2026) suggests spending it in three phases: about ₹4,000 crore on research, pilots and mapping storage sites; about ₹9,000 crore on public–private plants; and ₹6,000–7,000 crore on scale-up. The aim is to help steel, cement and refineries cut emissions they cannot easily avoid.
UPSC angle: Prelims: CCUS, DAC, Deccan Traps basalt, CCTS 2023. · Mains GS-III: decarbonising industry; climate finance.
23 Oct 2026Learn the concept
Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
Want every PYQ in one place? See the Battle IAS PYQ Book.