IIM-A to launch carbon finance course

IIM-A to launch carbon finance course
Rafat Quadri and Asit Srivastava Ahmedabad/Lucknow, August 5, 2008

After the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIML), it is now the turn of IIM Ahmedabad to launch a programme on environmental management strategies with special focus on carbon markets, a market in which India is now the second largest seller in the world.

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Ahmedabad will introduce the carbon finance course this academic year.

"The course is aimed at providing conceptual and practical understanding of the anthropogenic forces causing climate change, the global legal and institutional framework and mechanism to deal with it, and the dynamics underlying carbon finance," PR Shukla, one of the course instructors, told IANS.

IIML is already offering a management development programme (MDP) on corporate environmental management and carbon markets.

IIML had launched this course last year, aiming to sensitise professionals to various environmental issues and equip them with effective environmental management, officials said.

"The course, whose duration is three days, is meant for working executives only," said Sushil Kumar, coordinator of the programme at IIML.

"Our course covers environmental policy and law, environmental impact assessment, carbon markets and emission trading and several other issues," he added.

Going into more detail, the IIMA's forthcoming course on carbon finance has been divided into 14 sessions and will introduce the evolution of the global carbon market, the current state of international negotiations on climate change and developments following the Kyoto Protocol.

The three formal carbon finance instruments in Kyoto Protocol - the Joint implementation (JI Article 4), Clean Development Mechanism (CDM - Article 12) and Emissions Trading (ET - Article 17) - will be introduced.

Other carbon finance instruments and initiatives, such as those being implemented by the World Bank, will also be discussed.

"The course has a global focus with significant India centric economics and finance and practical case studies. Besides the financial instruments for carbon mitigation, the course also includes discussions on financial services to deal with the adverse impacts of climate change, such as climate change insurance and emergent adaptation funds," said Shukla.

Besides the financial instruments for carbon mitigation, the course also includes discussions on financial services to deal with the adverse impact of climate change, such as climate change insurance and emergent adaptation funds.

With many European countries eyeing the Chinese and the Indian carbon markets, the IIM-A expects a good turnout of foreign students for the course registration, which started in August.

"The term 'Carbon Finance' is used, in practice as well as in the course title, as a surrogate for 'Climate Change Finance' to cover wide ranging financial responses to mitigate and adapt to climate change," Shukla said.

Responding to climate change is a global venture, governed by international legal, regulatory and institutional framework, presently agreed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The market can be used for efficient economic response to climate change and like all environmental markets; the global 'Carbon Market' is a creation of regulations.

The dynamics of the global carbon market results from institutions, policies, instruments and the specific measures agreed periodically by the nations that are a party to the UNFCCC.