# India Carbon Credit Trading Scheme: Which Industries Have Targets

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/india-carbon-credit-trading-scheme-targets

Published 2026-10-13.

India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme moved from design to obligation in 2025. Large plants in energy-intensive sectors now have legally binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions per tonne of product, and they will earn tradable carbon credit certificates if they beat them, or have to buy them if they miss.

The question most businesses ask is simple: is my sector covered, and if I am a supplier rather than an obligated plant, what changes for me?

## Who has targets

Targets are set as emissions intensity, tonnes of CO2e per tonne of product, against a 2023-24 baseline. They have been notified in two batches so far.

**Notified on 8 October 2025:** aluminium, cement, chlor-alkali, and pulp and paper, covering 282 plants. Reported reduction ranges over two years are about 2.8 to 7.06 percent for aluminium, 4.7 to 7.6 percent for cement, 3.3 to 11 percent for chlor-alkali, and up to 15 percent for pulp and paper. About 40 percent of each plant's reduction is due in 2025-26 and the remaining 60 percent in 2026-27.

**Notified on 13 January 2026:** petroleum refineries, petrochemicals, textiles and secondary aluminium, bringing in 208 more obligated entities. That takes the total to about 490.

**Still pending at the time of writing:** iron and steel, and fertilisers, which were in the 2025 draft lists. Check the latest gazette notifications before assuming your sector's status.

## How compliance works

Each obligated entity has a target intensity for each year. A plant that does better than its target earns carbon credit certificates for the difference; a plant that falls short must surrender certificates to cover it. The certificates trade on Indian power exchanges under the scheme's rules.

## Why suppliers should care

Most MSMEs are not obligated entities. The scheme still reaches them in three ways:

1. **Customers will push intensity down the chain.** A textile mill or cement plant with a target looks first at its own fuel and power, then at what it buys: purchased steam, process inputs, transport.
2. **Data requests will arrive.** Obligated entities need monitoring, reporting and verification. Suppliers of fuel, power and intermediate products will be asked for documented figures.
3. **Lower intensity has a price.** Once certificates trade, every tonne a plant avoids has a market value, which strengthens the case for efficiency projects and the green loans that fund them.

## What to do now

- Check whether your plant, or your largest customer, is in a notified sector.
- Build a monthly record of fuel, electricity and production so intensity per tonne can be shown. Senseible does this from the invoices and bills you already have, with each figure linked to its source document.
- If you sell to the EU as well, the same records serve CBAM. India's request for CBAM to recognise its carbon market is covered in [can India's new carbon markets shield exporters](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/trading-air-for-assets-india-carbon-markets-eu-price).

This is general guidance. Check the Bureau of Energy Efficiency and gazette notifications for your sector's target.

## Related guides

- [CBAM for Indian exporters](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/cbam-compliance-indian-exporters)
- [EU rules for Indian textile exporters](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/india-textile-exporters-cbam-eu-compliance-2026)
- [Brazil CBIO versus India CCTS](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/brazil-cbio-india-ccts-comparing-carbon-markets)
- [India's carbon market and the EU carbon price](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/trading-air-for-assets-india-carbon-markets-eu-price)