Global Carbon Credits Die as Smart Money Backs Indian RECs

Vibhav Nuwal was once an enthusiastic supporter of the global carbon market. The 32-year-old Indian-born banker started in September 2009 developing carbon credits to target investors in Europe and Japan for Mumbai-based private-equity fund Managing Emissions. Less than a year later, he quit his job, convinced that the United Nations’ failure to broker a global agreement to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions meant the carbon credit market was effectively dead.

Now, Nuwal has set up a business helping companies that earn incentives from renewable-energy projects under a new Indian government program. Nuwal says that in the absence of a global consensus, investors are more likely to channel funds into incentive programs in local markets such as India, where they can make three times as much as they do selling credits under the global, UN-sponsored plan, Bloomberg Markets reports in its May issue.