India Times
India’s total installed solar power capacity will increase to 5,630 gigawatt (GW) by 2070 in order to achieve net zero emissions, according to a new report released early this week by independent think tank Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).
Consequently, the total corresponding land requirement for India’s power generation assets, especially solar, would be approximately 4.6 percent, says the report – titled ‘Implications of a Net-zero Target for India’s Sectoral Energy Transitions and Climate Policy’. The report has further resurfaced the debates around carbon footprint and India’s position on net zero emissions.
What is the carbon footprint?
A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions that come from the production, use and end-of-life of a product or service. It includes carbon dioxide – the gas most commonly emitted by humans – and others, including methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases, which trap heat in the atmosphere, causing global warming. Usually, the bulk of an individual’s carbon footprint comes from transportation, housing, energy and food.
What is India’s rank in carbon emission?
A first nationwide study conducted by Japan- based Research Institute for Humanity and Nature showed that the top 20% of high-expenditure households in India are responsible for seven times the emissions traceable to the poor who spend less than $1.9 (Rs 140) a day. That means the carbon footprint of every Indian was estimated at 0.56 tonne per year – 0.19 tonne per capita among the poor and 1.32 tonne among the rich.
Emissions from India rank third in the global list, accounting for 2.46 billion metric tonnes of carbon or 6.8% of the total global emissions. India’s per capita carbon emissions are, however, still low at 1.84 tonnes compared to the United States’ 16.21 tonnes.
The study highlights the region and class-specific assessment of carbon footprint along the lines of global findings on the vast gap between the global rich and the poor when it comes to carbon emissions. According to the UN emissions gap report, the world’s wealthiest 1% account for more than twice the combined carbon emissions of the poorest 50%. It also concluded that to avoid a serious rise in global temperatures this century, the richest would have to rapidly cut their CO2 footprints.
How does a country cut its carbon footprint?
In recent times, this process has been popularised as net zero emission. It is the state in which a country’s greenhouse emissions are removed from the atmosphere by carbon absorption or sequestration.
Net-zero, which is also referred to as carbon-neutrality, does not mean that a country would bring down its emissions to zero. That would be gross-zero, which means reaching a state where there are no emissions at all, a scenario hard to comprehend. Therefore, net-zero is a state in which a country’s emissions are compensated by absorption and removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
One way by which carbon can be absorbed is by creating carbon sinks. Until recently, the Amazon rainforests in South America, which are…
