Click to play videoOxford/Chandigarh: It's World Earth Day on Sunday and as part of CNN-IBN special series What on Earth, we're looking at the world of carbon credit and why Indian entrepreneurs and corporates are queuing up to go green.
It’s lunchtime in a government run school in Chandigarh and hungry students are busy queuing up for their share of a green-meal.
But we're not talking spinach and peas or nutrition, we're talking carbon-neutral!
Now the kids may not have digested the concept yet but food here is cooked on stoves fuelled by crop waste.
For the school it means saving over Rs 15,000 a month on LPG and for the designer of this saanja chulha (stove), Ramesh Nibhoria, it means offsetting 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide that would have otherwise been released into the atmosphere.
Firstly, it’s a business and if it can solve global warming then its fortunate we have these options before us,” said Ramesh Nibhoria of Nishant Bioenergy.
In the larger scheme of things, Ramesh's mission may be a small one, but in a world threatened by the dire effects of global warming, any effort counts.
It’s a little wonder that stoves in Chandigarh have found favour in UK.
Climate Care in Oxford is an organization that's currently funding Nibhoria.
It is one of the many companies is the country in the business of handing out carbon credits.
What this means is that every time British fly, drive, heat their homes and add to the CO2 in the atmosphere, they could offset their emissions by paying Climate Care which in turn would fund sustainable energy projects in developing countries.
“Off-setting is like paying a company like Climate Care to make reductions in carbon on your behalf,” said Michael Buick from Climate Care.
Back home, how does Ramesh equate his life's work with western 'guilt' money that's funding it?
“‘Guilt’ money has helped me expand my business,” said Ramesh.
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