Scaling up infrastructure and managing expectations of the greens isn't an easy job. A protest worthy job here and a green initiative there, one would expect to see some balance, and even better a system to quantify such balance. What if a body (BBMP or KSPCB) was to keep track of "green score" lost or scored on every project running in the city? Sort of like the carbon credits system, but with some twists:
- City could make a call to go negative on a project or two as long as the lost score would be made up via another real money project.
- To provide flexibility, there would be a cap on how much negative can city's green score go.
- And also think of a limit on how long can the City keep an active negative scores.
- Last, of course - City has to be a reasonably defined local area - not too small, not too large.
So, when a project comes up for environmental approval, instead of an often mundane or subjective approvals from an assessment committee, the approving agency (KSPCB?) would ask for - "what's the score".
Total score from all projects would be tallied up every quarter. If you go negative beyond a number (say 500 points - assume 1 point = 1 tonne carbon), nothing can be approved till the score is pulled back down to zero.
KSPCB could be the state level record keeper. There could be a city level auditor as well (say BBMP for Bengaluru).
And we would need third party auditors as well - to check and verify the scores cited for each major project. Could be NGOs, or paid specialists.
Hope I conveyed the crux of the concept, I mean more details would need to be thought through. But there are some places where this concept has holes, like:
- What is the penalty for staying negative (non-compliant) for too long. No projects get approved - is that practical, or enough? Or could it be something like no property tax can be collected, or no grants from Center for the City!?
- Who would develop and maintain the scoring system itself?
Sounds complicated, but such a thing may make things easier for government agencies to manage, quanity as well as communicate the balance they need to keep as our cities get re-built or developed.
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Comments
The score at start?
Another thing to agree on would be - start with score as zero, or calculate the score for active projects in the city? Active project = money sanctioned but completion pending.
Even though everyone seems to have turned into carbon management experts these days, NGOs may not have the expertis. We could start with IISc or IIM-B helping with the scoring table and system.
May be there should be
May be there should be reality show on the infrastructure projects by BBMP :-).
The score system sounds like a good idea.
Ajay
Urban EcoMap from Cisco
Here is the fact sheet and website
How do KSPCB etc clear projects?
Was wondering if they have an objective score based system for clearing projects, or do they make subjective calls and assessments when approving projects.
Is KSPCB - (Karnataka state pollution control board) - the sole body that clears project from environment angle? Or is there a separate state environmental agency as well? When does central government (state of forests and environment) get involved - every project, or only larger than some size?
Wonder if anyone here can do some education for us.
green socre system - time for BBMP to have one
The ongoing tussle over Sankey Tank Road Widenining, 100+ more roads on BBMP's 'i will widen them' (read as 'I will cut more trees') list, there is a need for a green score like system.
I read in newspapers today, where the deputy commsr was quoted as saying that BBMP will plant trees in the median once the Sankey Road is widened.
BBMP claims they are planting trees elsewhere.
Why not actionize this cutting planting busines via a green score system. It will give BBMP and the Greens an easy way to keep scores, as well provide some flexibility. The risk of course is that BBMP will misuse the system, claim non-existant new trees elsewhere (to get green scores), and use the score to cut real trees to widen roads.