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Emission intensity for India
Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment
- Emissions in economic growth: All countries emit greenhouse gases as they chase economic growth, and that becomes the emissions-intensity of GDP. India is doing well in reducing emissions-intensity of its GDP as per the international commitments made.
- India’s emission scenario: As an emerging economy, India’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions continue to rise. But it has also committed to reducing the emissions-intensity of its GDP by 33-35% over 2005 levels by 2030. Between 2011 and 2016, while its GDP (current prices) rose at 12% CAGR, emissions increased at 4% CAGR. [CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) is a measure of the average yearly growth of investments over a certain time period]
- India’s latest Biennial Update Report (BUR): This report was submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
- BURs are the foundation of transparency in the international climate regime. It works as a mechanism to check how countries are doing against stated goals. India's measurement, reporting and verification have sound foundations. They comprise dashboards/portals, apps, data repositories and initiatives by non-governmental institutions.
- 63 countries have submitted BUR-1 and 31 have submitted BUR-2. India is one of the only 13 countries to have published BUR-3 (three countries have submitted BUR-4). China and the US, the largest current and historical polluters, respectively, have submitted two reports.
- Energy intensity in emission reduction: During 2012-16, emissions intensity of GDP reduced by 11% at constant 2011 prices (24% reduction since 2005). By contrast, energy intensity of GDP decreased 7% at constant prices. While the share of agriculture emissions fell, energy-use emissions increased to three-fourths of all emissions. Emissions from residential and commercial energy use grew the fastest (12% CAGR, signalling rapid urbanisation). This was followed by energy industries, manufacturing and transport (CAGRs of 5%, 3% and 4%, respectively). Thus, bulk of India’s achievement in reducing emissions intensity after 2016 has been due to energy efficiency.
- How achieved: The programmes include -
- Ujala scheme for LED light bulbs - 180 million tonnes of CO2, or mtCO2, saved between 2014-15 and 2019-20
- Perform, Achieve and Trade scheme for industries - 31 mtCO2 saved during 2012-15 and 61 mtCO2 during 2016-19
- Efficient street lighting - 14.82 mtCO2 saved between 2015-16 and 2019-20
- Krishi Sinchayee Yojana for agriculture - 11.979 mtCO2 saved during 2017-19
- Supercritical coal power plants (avoiding sub-critical units) - 20.69 mtCO2 avoided by March 2017
- Smaller savings have come from – fuel efficiency norms for passenger cars, support for EVs, energy efficiency schemes for small industries, efficient water pumping in cities, and building retrofits. Together, these resulted in a net reduction of more than 23 million tonnes of oil equivalent in 2018-19. (roughly 6% of total energy consumption that year)
- The future: The energy-use sectors will determine how quickly India’s decarbonisation unfolds. Across energy-intensive industries, cement and non-ferrous metals had the highest reduction in energy intensity (21% and 14%, respectively). But iron and steel increased energy intensity of output. These heavy industries will continue to pose a challenge.
- Other countries: Barring China, India outperforms many major emitters (the US, EU-4, Japan, Russia and Brazil) in reducing energy intensity of GDP during 2011-17. The BUR calculates a carbon budget based on equal per capita allocation. India’s per capita cumulative emissions during 1990-2017 was only 27% of its fair share of emissions. This contrasts with emissions exceeding the fair share in the US (417%), Germany (242%), Japan (211%), or China (109%). Moreover, rich countries have failed to redeem past commitments to cut emissions.
- Shortfalls to address: Despite massive deployment, the share of renewables in India’s primary energy mix has increased from 0.1% to merely 2% during 2011-19. Electricity still accounts for only about 26% of India’s final energy consumption and renewables have only a 9% share in power generation. So, for faster decarbonisation, there must be a double transition: faster electrification of sectors, rapidly rising share of renewables in power generation etc.
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