India largest contributor to CO2 emissions in 2022, by far
India has the largest contribution to the growth of CO2 emissions in the world in 2022, says ‘Global Carbon Budget 2022’, a report by the international research project, Global Carbon Project (GCP).
The projection for the whole year says that emissions by India will increase by 6 per cent, followed by USA at 1.5 per cent. On the other hand, emissions in China and the European Union (EU) region are projected to fall, by 0.9 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively.
Not only that, India’s emissions from the burning of fossil fuels (petrol and diesel) too exceed that of the EU—growing “at over 3% per year in the last 10 years”, Robbie Andrew, a senior researcher at the Norway-based leading climate research institute CICERO told the online environmental news publication, Mongabay-India.
However, “India’s per capita emissions are still only a third of those in the EU”, said Andrew, but this is because of its large population, and so is of lesser importance.
With respect to remedial measures, GCP Executive Director Pep Canadell told Mongabay-India that since India has a very low base energy per capita (since it has such a large population), it’s energy requirements will continue to grow and so the most viable option is ensuring “accelerating the renewable energy transition”.
At the ongoing 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) summit in Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt, India has submitted its ‘Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy’ to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As part of it, the country’s environment minister said in his speech, India will “reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP to 45% below 2005 levels by2030”.
