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Economic slowdown may lighten India’s carbon burden
Why in news?
- There’s a silver lining to India’s economic slowdown. Carbon dioxide emissions are poised to grow at their slowest — a 2% rise from last year — since 2001, according to an analysis published in Carbon Brief, a site that tracks emission and carbon dioxide trends.
More in news
- Data Collected From: Ministries responsible for electricity, coal, oil, gas and foreign trade
- Analysis:
(1) Wild Swings in the rise in C02 emissions from India: from 7.7% in 2014 to 3.5% the next year and then back to 7.8% in 2018.
(2) First time that emissions are expected to grow below 3% from the previous year.
(3) Emissions increased by 2% in the first eight months of the year, a lower rate than any annual increase since 2001.
(4) Analysis restricted to August, as the remaining months were unlikely to change the year’s trend.
(5) Coal generation trends are unlikely to change: given the lack of demand and the contribution of renewables.
(6) Slower growth in coal-based power generation will benefit the country’s air quality efforts: as mostly coal-fired power plants lack pollution controls commonly required in the EU or China.
(7) Rise in renewables Industrial coal use fell dramatically in 2017 because of a slowdown in the construction sector and bounced back in 2018.
(8) Combined total of coal sales from state-owned mines to consumers outside the power sector and imports of coking coal and coke fell 14% in 2017 and rose 15% in 2018. But it increased by just 3% in the first eight months of 2019.
(9) Wind generation: rose by 17% in the first six months of 2019 compared to the same period of previous year, solar up by 30% and hydro increasing by 22%.
- Report by the International Energy Emissions Agency in 2018, said
(1) India’s per capita emissions were about 40% of the global average and contributed 7% to the global carbon dioxide burden.
(2) The U.S., the largest emitter, contributed 14%.
- Commitments to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change:
(1) India has promised to reduce the emission intensity of its economy by 2030, compared to the 2005 levels.
(2) Committed to having 40% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.
Sources
The Hindu