Greenhouse Gases Emission Intensity Target (Amendment) Rules, 2025

What it does

The amendment, notified as G.S.R. 25(E) on 13 January 2026 according to the site's note on carbon credit targets, adds plants to the Greenhouse Gases Emission Intensity Target Rules, 2025. The principal rules, notified as G.S.R. 739(E) on 8 October 2025, gave 282 named plants in aluminium, cement, chlor-alkali and pulp and paper a binding target. The amendment renumbers the Schedule of the principal rules as the First Schedule and inserts a Second Schedule of 208 more plants, which together bring the number of named plants to 490.

The additions are 3 secondary aluminium plants, 21 petroleum refineries, 11 petrochemical units and 173 textile units. For each plant the Schedule gives the baseline output and emission intensity for 2023-24 and a target for each of 2025-26 and 2026-27. The refinery rows are built differently, with a further factor that the gazette does not define and an intensity measured against crude throughput.

The first year is short by design. A note to the Second Schedule works the 2025-26 target pro rata over January to March 2026, and the 2026-27 target keeps the reduction the plant would have faced had it been notified for the whole of 2025-26.

Who it binds

The plants named in the Second Schedule, as the plants in the First Schedule are bound by the principal rules. The obligation is on the plant as a named entity. The rules list its duties: to achieve the target in each compliance year, to surrender banked or purchased carbon credit certificates for any shortfall, to register on the Indian Carbon Market portal and to submit its documents in the prescribed manner.

What has changed, and when

The principal rules are the base and the amendment is the second step. The amendment took effect from 13 January 2026, and the plants it adds therefore come under the targets part-way through the first compliance year. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency administers the trading scheme and its procedure, while the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change makes the targets under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

What turns on it in practice

The consequence of missing a target is money. A plant that falls short has to buy and surrender certificates for the gap, and a shortfall left uncovered draws environmental compensation at twice the average traded price of a certificate, as the site's note records. That makes the cost of non-compliance higher than the cost of compliance by design, so a plant that expects to miss its target has an incentive to buy early and not wait to be assessed.

For an investor or a buyer of a plant in one of the added sectors, the Schedule is a diligence document. The row for the plant states the target it must meet, and the comparison between the baseline and the target indicates how much improvement or how many certificates the plant needs. The rules count only emissions from fuel burnt in the plant and from electricity and heat brought in, for the period up to 2026-27, so the plant's reporting has to be organised accordingly.

The firm's projects practice reads the amendment with the principal rules, which are a related instrument on this site, and with the procedure that sets the dates for monitoring plans, verified assessments and the final statement of compliance.