What are the major contributors to carbon footprint in India and how does carbon footprint affect the environment?
In India, the major contributors to the carbon footprint include various sectors and activities that emit greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2), into the atmosphere. These sectors contribute to India's overall carbon emissions and have implications for both the environment and human well-being. Some of the significant contributors to the carbon footprint in India are:
The carbon footprint affects the environment in various ways:
Addressing the carbon footprint is crucial for mitigating the impacts of climate change and ensuring a sustainable future. India and other countries are working to transition to cleaner energy sources, improve energy efficiency, promote sustainable transportation, and implement policies that reduce carbon emissions and promote environmental stewardship.
The sheer volume of CO₂ emitted by coal-fired power plants makes the electric power sector the largest source of GHGs in India. The second-largest contributor is the agriculture sector, which produces huge amounts of methane (CH₄) from rice paddies and cattle. Human activities are responsible for almost all of the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the last 150 years. The largest source of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities in the United States is from burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation. The most devastating effect that carbon emissions have on the environment is climate change. India contributes to climate change through carbon dioxide emission from the burning of fossil fuels, the release of other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere due to industrial activities, urbanization and transportation, degradation of the air quality by burning waste and crop residue, contamination of water bodies. Our carbon footprint has a negative impact on the environment in multiple ways: It is the main cause of human-induced climate change, it contributes to urban air pollution, it leads to toxic acid rain, it adds to coastal and ocean acidification and it worsens the melting of glaciers and polar ice. A carbon footprint is basically the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions that anything a person, organization, event or product – has produced. Greenhouse gases are the gases in the atmosphere that produce the “greenhouse effect” and contribute to global warming and climate change.