[brijeshrawat]

To overcome the current climate crisis, the industrialized world has to come together to support developing countries to produce and use clean alternative energy. One solution is for the individuals and companies in the developed world to buy carbon credits – to offset their carbon footprint - from the companies or organizations working on afforestation/reforestation or the alternative energy technologies in the developing countries. Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Developmental Mechanism (CDM) allows companies in the developed world to earn emissions-reduction credits for investing in energy-efficient projects in the developing world. Similarly, many U.S. based companies are beginning to work voluntarily with companies/organization in developing countries to offset their carbon footprint. These sort of incentives will make renewable energy more affordable compared to fossil fuels in the absence of any governmental subsidies in the developing countries.

Biodiesel is an important renewable substitute for fossil fuels. Jatropha curcas, a high yielding non-edible oilseed tree crop, is considered one of the most promising sources of biodiesel. Jatropha can grow in wastelands, and it yields more than four times as much fuel per hectare as soybean, and more than ten times that of corn. The lower cost of subsidized diesel, however, makes the commercial-scale cultivation of jatropha not economically viable. The revenues from selling the carbon credit from plantation as well as substitution of diesel, nevertheless, will make the project sustainable. Moreover, jatropha cultivation has a huge potential to alleviate soil degradation, desertification and deforestation by greening this vast wasteland while providing employment to rural extremely poor and marginalized communities.

We’re setting up co-operatives with the farmers for the jatropha plantation on their fallow land. The co-operative will allow small farmers to participate. The co-operatives will be provided with the state-of-the-art cultivation techniques and high yield seeds and economic assistance to grow jatropha. The oilseeds processing will be setup for every 100 hectares of plantation thereby providing local employment. The by-products such as seedcake will be utilized locally either to fulfill the energy needs or making high value manure for organic farming. The local diesel vehicles or diesel generators will be modified to use the filtered oil directly to maintain the clean environment conditions. The leftover oil will be collected from these units to process biodiesel.

To finance the activities of jatropha plantation and biodiesel production, we’re forming partnerships with individuals and businesses to offset their corporate carbon footprint. Our plantation will begin in Uttarakhand, a hilly state of India, where we’ve identified more than 100,000 hectares of unused land available for plantation. Uttarakhand government is supporting bio-diesel economy by setting funding research institutes for providing high quality jatropha seeds and providing incentives to set-up environmental friendly industries.
Carbon offset from Jatropha plantation