What are the key dates in India's CCTS so far?
India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme has been built out in stages since 2023, with the enabling law, the scheme itself, the offset rulebook and the sectoral targets each arriving separately. The table below sets out the dated milestones, and marks each as notified or expected so the two are not confused.
| Date | Milestone | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Energy Conservation Act, 2001 — the originating statute | Notified |
| 2022 | Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022 creates the legal basis for carbon credit trading | Notified |
| 28 June 2023 | Carbon Credit Trading Scheme, 2023 notified by the Ministry of Power as S.O. 2825(E) | Notified |
| 23 January 2025 | Bureau of Energy Efficiency publishes twelve Phase 1 offset methodologies | Notified |
| 27 March 2025 | Ministry of Power issues the Detailed Procedure for the Offset Mechanism | Notified |
| 1 April 2025 | Compliance obligations take effect with financial year 2025-26 | Notified |
| 8 October 2025 | Emission intensity targets notified for aluminium, cement, chlor-alkali and pulp and paper | Notified |
| 16 January 2026 | Emission intensity targets notified for petroleum refining, petrochemicals and textiles | Notified |
| 21 March 2026 | Indian Carbon Market Portal launched | Notified |
| 31 July 2026 | Verified performance for compliance year 2025-26 due, four months after year end | Scheduled |
| Mid-2026 | First Carbon Credit Certificate trading expected | Expected |
| Pending | Emission intensity targets for iron and steel and for fertiliser | Expected |
The gap between the scheme being notified in 2023 and obligations actually biting in 2025 is normal for a market of this kind, and is mostly the time taken to set defensible baselines. The remaining uncertainty sits at the bottom of the table: iron and steel is among the largest covered sectors, so its target notification will change the size of the market materially.
What is the annual CCTS compliance deadline?
Obligated entities report verified performance within four months of a compliance year ending. A compliance year is one Indian financial year, running 1 April to 31 March, so the annual deadline falls on 31 July.
- 1 April — compliance year begins; monitoring runs across the year.
- 31 March — compliance year ends.
- 31 July — verified performance due to the Bureau of Energy Efficiency and the State Designated Agency, four months later.
- Following that, certificates are issued to entities that came in below target, and entities above target buy and surrender certificates to settle.
Four months is a tight window for assembling a year of evidence and having it independently verified, and it is the practical argument for continuous monitoring over an annual data-gathering exercise. Evidence that is captured as it arises is already most of the way to a filing; evidence reconstructed afterwards competes for the same four months as the verification itself.
When will Carbon Credit Certificates start trading?
First certificate trading was expected around the middle of 2026, following the launch of the Indian Carbon Market Portal on 21 March 2026. Certificates trade on India's power exchanges under the oversight of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission.
Treat trading timing as the least settled row in the table. A launch date that has been signalled but not yet observed is exactly the kind of fact that quietly goes stale on a reference page, which is why this page marks status explicitly rather than presenting every row as settled. If you are reading this well after the review date below, check the current position before relying on it.
Does the offset mechanism follow the same calendar?
No. The compliance calendar above governs obligated entities. A project registered under the offset mechanism follows its own cycle, set by its methodology and its crediting period, rather than the 1 April to 31 March compliance year.
The two mechanisms share infrastructure and a certificate unit but not a timetable, and they do not currently share demand either — offsets cannot be used to meet a compliance obligation. See the offset mechanism for how a project actually moves through registration, validation and verification.