Carbon-target tracking and credit planning for mid-size plants under CCTS
TL;DR Emitplan helps mid-size paper, textile and chlor-alkali plants meet their new emission-intensity targets under India's carbon market. It tracks intensity every month, keeps verifier-ready files and tells the plant early whether it will need to buy credits or can bank a surplus. Plants pay an annual subscription.
Since October 2025, named Indian plants carry legally notified greenhouse-gas intensity targets for 2025-26 and 2026-27[1]. And it isn't only large companies on that list. It includes paper mills with baseline output of 38,583 and 55,257 tonnes a year[1], which rarely employ a carbon specialist.
The work is fiddly. A plant must file a monitoring plan, sample coal monthly or every 20,000 tonnes and test it at an accredited lab, then submit a verified performance report after the year closes[2]. Miss the target and the plant must buy credits. If it still falls short, it pays environmental compensation at twice the average credit price for that cycle[3].
So when do most plants find out where they stand? Only once the year has ended, which is far too late to do anything about it.
What it does, in regulatory terms: compliance software and advisory only. Emitplan does not verify emissions, which is the job of BEE-accredited verification agencies, and it does not issue, hold or trade carbon credit certificates for clients[2].
The plant connects fuel purchase records, production data and lab results, or uploads them monthly. Emitplan applies the BEE method and default emission factors to show intensity against target each month, flags gaps in sampling or metering that a verifier would question, and assembles the year-end file. From the third month it forecasts the year's position as a range - likely shortfall or surplus in tonnes of CO2e, and what that might cost at recent exchange prices.
The seed pitched tokenised carbon credits sold in fractions as NFTs, so I reframed it. Verra stopped tokens based on retired credits in 2022[4], and India's compliance credits trade on power exchanges under CERC and are not treated as financial instruments at the start[3]. The money in India's carbon market today sits with plants that must comply, not with retail buyers.
The user is the plant's energy manager. The payer is the plant head or CFO, who now faces a penalty with a number attached. My test price is ₹4–10 L per plant per year, which is an assumption. Today these plants lean on energy auditors and consultants, and I found no published price for CCTS compliance work. Personally I'd start with group companies that run several plants, since one sale gets you more than one site.
The target rules were notified on 8 October 2025[1]. Refining, petrochemicals and textiles followed in January 2026, while steel and fertiliser targets were still pending in March 2026[5]. The first credit trading was expected by mid-2026[3]. Plants are filing their first performance reports now, and the second compliance year is already under way.
About 490 entities across seven sectors had obligations in force by March 2026[5]. My count of the October 2025 schedule gives about 280 plants in the first four sectors, 53 of them in pulp and paper[1]. That is the narrow base - a few hundred plants, many mid-size. No public figure exists for what they spend on compliance services.
At least one Indian sustainability software firm publishes CCTS guidance and lists a CCTS compliance product alongside its carbon accounting tools[6]. Other startups sell AI-assisted carbon accounting and BRSR reporting[7]. Large consultancies serve the big groups. The gap is a plant-level monthly forecast with credit planning, priced and staffed for a 50,000-tonne paper mill rather than a refinery.
| Difficulty | Moderate (46/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹60 L–1.2 Cr |
| Time to launch | 6–9 months |
The calculations follow a published method, so the software is manageable. The hard parts are getting messy plant data in every month, keeping up as BEE revises its procedures, and selling to plant heads who would rather wait and see what the first year costs them.
No licence to operate, because Emitplan advises and doesn't verify or trade. Your clients carry the obligations.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't let AI decide what credits to buy or sell, or treat its forecast as final. Bad input data gives confident wrong numbers, and the plant pays for them.
Want to work out the AI layer for Emitplan? Talk to Yash →
This is a good fit if you have energy-audit or PAT-scheme experience and already know plant managers in one sector. If you're hoping to build a carbon trading platform then look elsewhere. Prove first that ten mid-size plants will share monthly data and pay before their first verified report is due.
Plan for about ₹60 L–1.2 Cr, mostly the software build and a small team of energy engineers.
No licence to advise. You can't verify emissions, which is BEE-accredited agencies' job, and you shouldn't trade credits for clients.
Yes, wherever plants face emissions targets, as in the EU or China. The methods and rules differ, so rebuild the product for each scheme.
The free Emitplan validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the CCTS rules checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for plant and energy managers, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Emitplan or something close to it? The make-or-break work is getting clean monthly data out of plants that have never had to report it, and that's the kind of thing I help founders with. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.