Cabinet approves submitting report on greenhouse gas inventory to UNFCCC

The cabinet has approved the submission of second Biennial Update Report (BUR) to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), giving India's national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory of 2014, the government said on Friday.

The cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the approval duirng its meeting on Thursday.

As per an official statement, in 2014, a total of 26,07,488 gigagram (Gg) CC-2 equivalent or around 2.607 billion tonnes of CC-2 equivalent of GHGs were emitted from all activities, excluding 'land use, land use change and forestry' (LULUCF) in India.

"The net national GHG emissions after including LULUCF were 23,06,295 Gg COa equivalent or around 2.306 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

"Out of the total emissions, energy sector accounted for 73 per cent, industrial processes and product use (IPPU)8 per cent, agriculture 16 per cent and waste sector 3 per cent," it said adding that about 12 per cent of emissions were offset by the carbon sink action of forestland, cropland and settlements.

As a party to UNFCCC, India is mandated to submit biennial update reports containing updates of national greenhouse gas inventories and information on mitigation actions, needs and support received.

The BUR contains five major components - National Circumstances; National Greenhouse Gas Inventory; Mitigation Actions; Finance, Technology and Capacity Building Needs and Support Received and Domestic Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) arrangements.

As per the report, India is on course of achieving the target for emission intensity of the economy and share of non-fossil fuel-based power capacity

Under the Paris Agreement, India made three commitments- reducing greenhouse gas emission intensity of its GDP by 33-35 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, 40 per cent of India's power capacity would be based on non-fossil fuel sources and create an additional 'carbon sink' of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of Co2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.

--IANS

and/prs