NEW DELHI: India’s carbon footprints has consistently been increasing in sync with its development needs, but the country will eventually exceed what it had voluntarily pledged to the UN climate body with respect to its pre-2020 commitments.
In its third biennial update report (BUR-III), submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on February 20, India declared that the country’s emission intensity (per unit of GDP) has reduced by 24% between 2005 and 2016 and therefore it is “on track to meet its voluntary declaration to reduce the emission intensity of GDP by 20-25% from 2005 levels by 2020”.

The BUR-III, carrying details of India’s GHG inventory for the year 2016, shows that the country had emitted 2.8 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHG) with energy sector alone accounting for 75% of the total emissions. India had submitted it first BUR to the UNFCCC in 2016 and the second one in 2018.
Analysis of India’s all three BURs presents an interesting trend, showing a consistent decline in share of agriculture sector in total emission since 2010. On the other hand, emission from energy sector has been growing while shares of industries and waste sectors remain constant.
The agriculture sector is the main source of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. The CH4 emissions occur from this sector mainly due to livestock rearing (enteric fermentation and manure management) and paddy cultivation while N2O is principally emitted due to the application of fertilizers to agricultural soils. Judicious use of fertilizers, crop diversification and better manure management may by the reason of this decline.
In the energy sector, electricity production was the single largest source in this category, accounting for about 40% of the national total GHG emissions in 2016 while manufacturing industries and construction together emitted over 18% of total emissions.
Though the BUR-III gave details on how the share of non-fossil sources (renewable and nuclear) in total installed capacity of electricity generation increased to over 38% by November last year, it emphasized on the need to continue coal consumption in the country.
“Coal will however continue to be an integral part of India’s energy requirements, both for electricity generation and non-electricity uses and remains essential for India’s developmental needs and energy security,” said the BUR-III, noting how it would be in sync with India’s claim to a fair share of the global carbon budget and its significant underutilization of this share thus far.
Currently, India is the fourth in terms of overall global GHG emission with China, the USA and EU+UK being the top three. In terms of per capital emission, India’s figure is nearly one-third of the global average and nearly one-seventh of the biggest historical polluter, the USA.