Green Ventures India aims to offer technology and advisory services in return for securing carbon credits Positioned as an emissions commodity asset management company, the Green Ventures India Group (gvig) is a fund with a difference. A sub-advisor to Green Ventures International Ltd, a privately held asset management firm headquartered in New York, gvig has a dedicated fund of 200 million towards investments in India, dedicated to the development and monetisation of carbon credits from various industrial projects across India. It offers consultancy services, with no up-front charges, to small and medium enterprises in India, setting up projects which have potentials of generating certified emission reduction (cers) credits. In exchange for its environmental engineering project advisory services it procures the rights to buy the cers generated from the project at a predetermined price. These cers are aggregated and sold to buyers globally. For project developers it makes sense as they get free advice from the conceptual stage of the project. This also increases the probability of obtaining project related carbon credits from designated authorities. Once the credits are certified, the developers are able to lock in the entire proceeds generated over the life-cycle of the project at the current market price instead of depending on the volatile movement of carbon credit prices and carbon brokers. While there is a possibility of them losing out on possible future gains in case of a sudden price hike, selling the credits at a pre-determined value helps them build up a steady source of annual income, which could also be factored in the project costs. Selling at the current price also saves small enterprises from the hassles of getting suitable brokers who in turn can sell the same in global exchanges, ncdex has also recently started cers trading on its exchange in a bid to allow the discovery of a fair price for the carbon credits. While carbon credit aggregators are mushrooming across the globe, this fund is unique in as much as it seeks to go upstream in the carbon credit cycle to ensure an on-going supply to the buyers. By virtually co-associating with the project it eliminates the uncertainties associated with the price and supply of cers. "We aim to get investors and promoters of carbon-friendly green projects together," says Krish R. Krish-nan, founder and ceo, of Green Ventures. An iit graduate, armed with an additional environmental engineering degree from Cornell University in the US, Krishnan is also the ceo and founder of Green Ventures International and Green Ventures Nepal and a veteran in the field of Sustainable Environmental Development, and Renewable Energy Development. Vinay Bharatwaj, an engineering graduate, holding an mba finance degree, is the strategic head of gvi. An ex-Citibanker, Bharatwaj, who has worked with an international finance and technology firm, has considerable experience in project advisory work. "We are targeting development of projects with an objective of generating around 1,000 mw on the India-Nepal border," says Bharatwaj. Besides these two partners, there is a team of 18 members driving the initiative. The group, which set up the fund after two years of extensive research, is developing its projects in partnership as also on its own. These are largely in power generation and include a 120 mw run-of-the-river project in Nepal and 5 mw wind farm and solar based projects. "Currently gvi has 40 projects in the pipeline," says Krishnan, adding that India holds a lot of potential for generating carbon credits with several new projects being set up. Green Ventures, which is active in China - a big generator of carbon credits, making almost three times as many credits as India - is also planning to set up a new fund in Brazil. The India fund has a tenure of five years and the promoters are very bullish of securing a good flow of carbon credits. On an average 1 mw translates into 20,000 cers, depending on the grid to which the power is supplied. Substitution from a thermal power station would get more credits. As of now the fund is new and sponsors are betting on the idea. The performance of the India fund could probably see more funds replicating the idea with both technology and expertise co-partnering with finance. There are already half a dozen firms offering advice. This includes Ecosecu-rities India, Asia Carbon, Rabo India Finance and Enam Financial, which recently tied up with the UK-based Sindicatum Carbon Capital International to provide consultancy services. gvi would however have the first mover's advantage.