The Climate Action Reserve has adopted a new Nitric Acid Production (NAP) Protocol and an India-specific module, opening the door to carbon-market financing for technologies that can sharply cut nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions from nitric acid plants.
The move marks the Reserve’s first protocol applicable in India and its second in Asia, expanding its push to develop carbon markets aimed at high-impact greenhouse gas reductions.
Nitrous oxide is a powerful climate pollutant, with a global warming potential 265 times greater than CO₂ over a 100-year period. Yet N₂O abatement is not standard practice across the nitric acid sector, leaving significant emissions untreated where reductions are not required by law.
The Reserve says its new protocol is designed to help finance the installation of N₂O abatement technology at facilities where emissions would otherwise continue.
“N2O abatement technologies can achieve immediate, significant, and permanent climate benefits. The Nitric Acid Production Protocol provides transparency and certainty around the quantification and verification of emission reductions, giving carbon market participants confidence in the quality of reported reductions," said Robin Rix, President, Climate Action Reserve.
The scale of the opportunity in India is significant. The Reserve estimates that N₂O emissions from nitric acid production in the country exceed 2 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent annually.
The India Module is intended to provide the jurisdiction-specific rules needed to register projects in the country, while the broader NAP Protocol establishes common requirements for quantifying and verifying emissions reductions.
“N₂O emissions from nitric acid production in India are estimated at more than 2 million tonnes of CO₂e annually. The NAP Protocol can bridge the period before regulations exist by financing early deployment, creating operational experience, demonstrating feasibility, and developing the infrastructure to support broader implementation,” said Komal Sinha, Regional Head, Market Development (Asia) of the Climate Action Reserve.
"Deploying this technology now is critical to achieving reductions at the scale and speed necessary to address the climate crisis.”
The Reserve says the protocol was developed with input from technical experts, local stakeholders and the public. It includes stringent additionality requirements, conservative baseline setting and safeguards intended to prevent carbon credits from being issued for emissions reductions already required by law.
The framework also requires monitoring and verification, includes safeguards against production-related perverse incentives and provides for crediting to stop if regulatory requirements are introduced.
The Reserve’s modular approach separates sector-wide requirements from jurisdiction-specific rules. The system is intended to allow the organization to adapt its carbon protocols to local regulations and market conditions while speeding up development and updates.
The newly adopted India Module follows the approval of the U.S. Module on July 16, 2026. The Reserve says it has so far registered 23.9 million carbon credits from nitric acid production projects.
The organization is now inviting market participants to submit concepts for additional jurisdictional modules under the NAP Protocol.
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