India's carbon market closes its first compliance year

India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) turns the old Perform, Achieve and Trade energy-efficiency programme into a greenhouse-gas intensity market. In 2026 it moved from design to compliance: targets are notified, the registry is live, and the first year's filings are in.

Who is covered

Targets were notified in two tranches. Aluminium, cement, chlor-alkali, and pulp and paper came in October 2025, followed by petroleum refining, petrochemicals and textiles in January 2026. According to ICAP, that brings about 490 entities under binding obligations. Targets are set per sub-sector as tonnes of CO2e per unit of product, not as absolute caps.

How compliance works

• Targets cover the 2025-26 and 2026-27 compliance years against a 2023-24 baseline. They are back-loaded: about 40% of the required reduction falls in the first year and 60% in the second.
• Entities that beat their target receive Carbon Credit Certificates (CCCs). Those that miss it must buy and surrender certificates to cover the shortfall.
• The Indian Carbon Market portal, launched on 21 March 2026, handles the process end to end, from registration and verification to certificate issuance.
• First-year compliance filings were due by 31 July 2026. Trading on power exchanges, under rules set by CERC, is expected to begin around October 2026.

Why it matters beyond the covered plants

CCTS puts a domestic price on plant-level emission intensity, which is the same number EU importers need for CBAM. An aluminium or cement plant that builds a verified, installation-level measurement for CCTS is most of the way to supplying actual CBAM data, and the reverse is also true. For exporters in these sectors, one well-kept measurement system can serve both.

ZeroCarbon keeps emissions at the installation and product level, with each figure linked to its source documents, so the same record can support CCTS reporting, CBAM communication files and BRSR.