Rio to take a leaf out of Gujarat's 'Green' playbook
Gujarat's innovative emissions trading system has achieved significant pollution reduction. This successful model is now being adopted by other Indian states and cities. Rio de Janeiro plans to implement a similar market-based pollution control ...
Gujarat’s pioneering emissions trading system has cut pollution significantly and is inspiring similar market-based clean-air policies in India and abroad. (Representative Image)
New Delhi: Gujarat's success in bending the industrial pollution curve through the creation and implementation of a particulate emissions market is a case study worth examining. Several states, including Maharashtra, have lined up to follow suit.
Actually, Gujarat's pioneering emissions trading model has found a taker abroad. This June, at London Climate Week, Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Cavaliere announced plans for the city to take a leaf out of Gujarat's book and set up a market for pollutants.
The journey from Surat to Rio would not have been possible without collaboration and cooperation. It required academics, governments, industry, philanthropists and even royalty to come together to make it happen.
The blueprint for emissions trading was established in the US through the SO2 programme to tackle acid rain. That plan was refined and scaled up into the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The cap-and-trade approach worked in developed industrialised economies. But it had never been tried in a developing country where pollution is a major health, environmental and economic challenge.
In 2010, the environment and forests ministry invited academics, including current University of Chicago professor Michael Greenstone, from Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) to design a mechanism to tackle particulate matter pollution.
Designing the system was the easy part. Ensuring data integrity proved more difficult. It was only in 2019 that Surat was ready to test the market for real.
The Surat emissions market is a milestone in environmental policy, demonstrating that market-linked systems to curb pollution can succeed in rapidly developing economies. From low compliance with emissions norms, the industrial hub achieved 99% compliance.
Participating industrial units in Surat have collectively reduced particulate matter emissions by roughly a third compared with conventional factory clusters. The cost of controlling pollution also fell thanks to the trading system.
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The Surat experiment demonstrated that developing countries do not need to sacrifice economic growth for clean air. This achievement caught the attention of the Earthshot Prize, an award launched by Britain's Prince William in 2020 to identify and support solutions that "repair the planet". Its successful use of market mechanisms to control pollution resulted in Gujarat being shortlisted as one of the finalists for the 2025 Earthshot Prize.
Rio mayor Cavaliere will now adopt market-based solutions to air pollution in South America for the first time. Gujarat's emissions trading scheme, recognised by the Earthshot Prize, proves cities can harness innovative tools to protect people and the future.
