Growth rate of agricultural emissions picking up since 2015, shows data

Share of agriculture in India's emissions may be falling, but it still accounts for a fifth of the total

Although India refrained from signing the COP26 Action Agenda on Sustainable Agriculture at the climate summit in Glasgow though it was part of the negotiations, data suggests it needs to move fast in addressing the issue of agricultural sustainability.

A Business Standard analysis of Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (CAIT) data from 1990-2018 shows that even though India ranks third in terms of total greenhouse gas emissions, it has the top rank in terms of agricultural emissions. It accounted for over 12 per cent of the global greenhouse emissions from agriculture and related activities. It emitted 7 per cent more than the next highest polluting country, China, and 30 per cent more than Brazil, which ranked third in agricultural emissions. In absolute terms, agriculture emissions from India were 719 million tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e), whereas agricultural emissions from China were 673 MtCO2e. India surpassed China as the top agricultural emitter in 2011.

The share of agriculture in India’s total emissions may have declined from close to a third to just over 20 per cent between 2009 and 2018. Further analysis of CAIT shows that the growth rate of agriculture emissions had been increasing since 2015. The year-on-year growth in emissions in 2016 was 0.5 per cent and rose to 0.83 per cent in 2017. In 2018, the emissions had increased 1.3 per cent. Although the data since 2018 is not available, given that rice cultivation has increased, emissions from agriculture would also have picked up. Rice cultivation accounts for 18 per cent of agriculture emissions. The fourth advanced estimates released in August put the rice production in the country at 122.27 million tonne in 2020-21 — 8.7 per cent higher than the last five years’ average production.